Civil Aircraft Shoot, South Korea apologizes

South Korea military (South Korea) apologized for the incident in which two Marines fired a gun at a civilian jet aircraft because one identifies as one of North Korea's military aircraft.

"The military sincerely apologize to our community for causing concern over the incident," said Colonel Lee Man-woo, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) South Korea, Monday (20/06/2011).

The military will not admonish the two marines, he said, and noted that they act according the rules of engagement. Instead, the military will strengthen the training of soldiers at checkpoints to better distinguish between civilian aircraft and military aircraft.

"Marines do not deserve punishment because they did not do anything wrong," Lee said. "But, we will map out ways to better educate front-line army units to prevent such incidents happening again."

Both Marines were on guard duty on an island near the Yellow Sea border tension with North Korea, and fired their weapons into the K-2 Asiana Airlines aircraft which was flying above the fog on the sea in the incident shortly before dawn on Friday (17 / 6 / 2011).

The plane with 119 people in it are not damaged and no one was hurt because it is flying out of the reach of the weapon. This incident illustrates the high tensions on the Korean peninsula, following two deadly attacks on North Korea last year against South Korea-Cheonan warship that sank and the bombing of Yeonpyeong Island near the Yellow Sea border.

The two attacks killed 50 South Koreans, including two civilians. As a result, South Korea's military has vowed to return stronger than in the past when North Korea attacked again.
source: http://internasional.kompas.com