Appeals court retains 2-year jail term for student bomber

A Seoul appellate court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's two-year prison term for a graduate student charged with trying to hurt his professor with a homemade bomb in a plastic drink tumbler.

The Seoul High Court said the crime is "beyond what society can tolerate and deserves a stern punishment."

The 26-year-old defendant, a mechanical engineering student at Yonsei University in western Seoul, has been charged with inflicting injuries resulting from explosives.

In June last year, he built the explosive using a drink tumbler filled with gunpowder and nails and delivered it to the professor's office. The professor suffered minor burns since the bomb did not fully detonate.

The lower court had said Kim's actions were premeditated and deserve a heavy punishment. The student had placed the tumbler in a gift box with a note that read, "Thank you always."

The appeals court on Wednesday agreed with the lower court's decision.

The grad student told police he was angry at the professor for scolding him about his thesis. (Yonhap)