DAEJEON-- Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty and life imprisonment, respectively, for two bank robbery and murder suspects who were arrested last August about 21 years after their alleged crimes.

Lee Seung-man, 53, and Lee Jung-hak, 52, were apprehended on Aug. 27 last year for allegedly shooting a bank employee to death and stealing 300 million won (US$243,000) at a Kookmin Bank branch in Daejeon, about 150 km south of Seoul, in December 2001.

The case had remained unsolved for over two decades, but the arrests of the two suspects came after police matched DNA samples from masks and handkerchiefs found at the crime scene, and those recently found from an illegal game room in adjacent North Chungcheong Province.

Prosecutors requested the death penalty for Lee Seung-man and life imprisonment for Lee Jung-hak in their court hearing at the Daejeon District Court, identifying the former as the suspected shooter.

Source: Yonhap News Agency