Eight people were injured when a fighter jet accidentally dropped eight bombs on a civilian area during a joint exercise between the US and South Korean Air Forces on Thursday.
The accidental bombing occurred in Pocheon, a city close to the border with North Korea.
The 500-pound MK-82 bombs ‘abnormally’ released by the KF-16 fighter jet fell outside a firing range, causing unspecified civilian damages, which included houses and a church, the South Korean air force said in a statement.
‘We are sorry for the damage caused by the abnormal drop accident, and we wish the injured a speedy recovery,’ they added.
The air force said it will establish a committee to investigate why the accident happened and examine the scale of civilian damages. It said the fighter jet was taking part in the air force´s joint live-firing drills with the army.
The air force apologized for causing civilian damages and expressed hopes for a speedy recovery of the injured people. It said it will actively offer compensation and other necessary steps for victims.
The United States is yet to comment on the accidental bombing.
Yonhap news agency reported five civilians and two soldiers were injured. Yonhap said the conditions of two of the injured were serious but not life-threatening. It also said seven buildings were damaged.
Eight people were injured when a South Korean fighter jet accidentally dropped eight bombs on a civilian area during a joint exercise with the US Air Force Thursday
South Korean Air Force KF-16 fighter jets are seen on the runway in Gunsan
The MK-82 bombs ‘abnormally’ released by the KF-16 fighter jet fell outside a firing range, causing unspecified civilian damages, which included houses and a church, the air force said in a statement
Residents in the area have protested about the disturbance and potential danger from nearby training grounds for years.
Photographs shared by news agency News1 that it said were from the scene showed a badly damaged house with rubble strewn on the ground next to it.
The defense ministry said earlier on Thursday that South Korea and U.S. forces were holding their first joint live-fire exercises in Pocheon, linked to annual military drills due to start next week.
South Korea and the United States will kick off their annual Freedom Shield exercise on Monday, said Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The joint drills, which will run until March 20, aim to strengthen the readiness of the alliance for threats such as North Korea, the JCS said.
This year’s drills will reflect ‘lessons learned from recent armed conflicts’ and North Korea’s growing partnership with Russia, it added.
‘Our planners look across the globe and identify the trends that are changing and we look at how we can incorporate that into our exercises,’ Ryan Donald, a spokesperson for the United States Forces Korea (USFK), told a media briefing on Thursday.
North Korea views major South Korean-U.S. military training as an invasion rehearsal and often responds with missile tests and fiery rhetoric.
The air force said it will establish a committee to investigate why the accident happened and examine the scale of civilian damages. It said the fighter jet was taking part in the air force´s joint live-firing drills with the army
The air force statement didn´t say where the accident happened. But South Korean media reported it occurred in Pocheon, a city close to the border with North Korea
South Korean army soldiers and police officers stand guard near a bomb accident site in Pocheon
The hermit kingdom hasn’t responded to the announcement, but earlier this week, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused the U.S. of intensifying confrontational actions and threatened to ramp up measures ‘threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level.’
She cited the recent temporary deployments of U.S. strategic assets like an aircraft carrier and long-range bombers in South Korea and other U.S.-involved military activities.
Observers say North Korea could test-fire powerful nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike the U.S. mainland and American military bases in the region.
Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, President Donald Trump has said he would reach out to Kim Jong Un again to revive diplomacy.
North Korea hasn´t directly responded to Trump’s outreach as it argues U.S. hostilities against it has deepened since Trump´s inauguration.
Kim Jong Un and Trump met three times in 2018-19 to discuss how much economic and political benefits North Korea would receive in return for its nuclear disarmament.
But their diplomacy eventually fell apart after Trump rejected Kim´s offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step, in exchange of extensive sanctions relief.
About 70 combined field training sessions are scheduled for this year’s exercise, said Lee Sung-jun, a spokesperson for Seoul’s JCS.