Seoul:
South Korea's defence ministry denied on Monday the reported capture of a fugitive South Korean conscript who killed five fellow soldiers in a shooting spree on the border with North Korea.
"The report is wrong. He has not been captured yet," a ministry spokesman said in response to an alert issued by the Yonhap news agency.
Officials also refused to confirm television news channels that the soldier, identified by his family name Lim, had been speaking to his father and was preparing to surrender.
Armed with a K-2 assault rifle and a stash of ammunition, Lim went on the run Saturday night after killing five comrades at a frontline border outpost.
He traded fire with his pursuers late Sunday before digging in for the night in a section of forest outside a village just south of the heavily militarised border with North Korea.