South Korea stops certain military exercises after an accidental bombardment in a possible setback for us exercises

Seoul, South Korea (AP) – South Korea has suspended the training flights for Air Force planes and all live shooting exercises according to its fighter planes’ accidental bombardment of a civil zone, officials said on Friday, posing a potential setback to his next annual Military training with the United States.

On Thursday, two South Korean KF-16 fighter planes wrongly released four MK-82 bombs, each in a civilian pocket area, a city near the tight border with North Korea. The bombing, which injured nearly 30 people, two of them seriously, occurred when the South Korean and American forces engaged in a live shooting exercise as part of their widest Liberty Shield Exercise command post to start on Monday.

This year’s Freedom Shield Exercise is the first major joint training of the Allies since President Donald Trump returned to functions in January and intervenes in the midst of concerns concerning the booming soldiers of North Korea cooperation with Russia.

South Korea and the United States announced details on the exercises on Thursday, but it was overshadowed by the news of the bombings that aroused many public criticisms in South Korea.

The South Korean and American soldiers have interrupted all live shooting exercises across South Korea. Military officials said the Air Force of South Korea also stopped the flights of its entire aircraft, with the exception of surveillance and others necessary for emergency situations.

Military officials said that the formation of Freedom Shield will take place as planned and that they plan to restart the live shot and the flight training after finding the exact cause of the attack and formulating preventive steps.

But if they fail to resume training in break by Monday when they launch the Freedom Shield exercise with the American army, this will harm the operation of the first parts of the exercise, say the observers.

Lee Illwoo, a Korea Defense expert in Korea in South Korea, said that the suspension of flight training would particularly lead to “a big problem to examine the operational plans of the two countries”. He said flying planes would be essential to determine their real capacities, discussing the size of reinforcements from American aircraft abroad and modifying the operational plans of the allies.

The initial surveys have revealed that the pilot of one of the KF-16s has entered into poor contact details for a bombing site. Officials said two KF-16 drivers had more than 200 to 400 hours of flight. Lee said they probably piloted the KF-16s only two to three years old.

The South Korean and American soldiers have already started exercise in the field in connection with Freedom Shield, and the live firing on Thursday was one. Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesperson for the American army in South Korea, confirmed that the American services participated in the live shooting training on Thursday, but no American Air Force plane was still involved.

“We take this incident very seriously. We coordinate closely with the Deputy Rok Ministry and we are engaged in an in -depth and transparent investigation, “said Donald in a statement, using the acronym for the official name of South Korea, the Republic of Korea.

The incident occurred while North Korea increased its ardent rhetoric Against the United States and South Korea, because it considers their joint exercises as invasion rehearsals. The state news agency of North Korea warned on Friday that the United States and South Korea “will have to pay a lot for their stupid and reckless war exercises”.

Trump said he would again contact North Korean leader Kim Jong one to relaunch diplomacy, but North Korea has not responded to its opening.

In South Korea, we feared that Trump could reduce complains about the cost Bilateral exercises and once unilaterally announced the cancellation of an exercise after its first summit with Kim.

But Lee said Trump now knew the importance of South Korea in American Indo-Pacific and Chinese policies and does not reduce major exercises with South Korea.

This year’s field training takes place alongside Freedom Shield includes 16 field courses at the brigade level, against 10 of these exercises last year, according to the Army of South Korea.