US News

South Korean troops mistakenly shoot at civilian passenger jet: report

SEOUL — South Korea’s Marine Corps guards mistakenly fired at a passenger jet flying near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea, news agency Yonhap reported Saturday citing a military source.

No damage occurred during the incident, which reportedly unfolded just before dawn Friday and involved an Asiana Airlines flight carrying 119 flight crew and passengers from China.

Two soldiers guarding the southern coast of Gyodong Island in Incheon, about 50 miles (80km) west of Seoul, reportedly fired about 99 rounds from their K-2 rifles towards the South Korean plane after misidentifying it as a North Korean military aircraft, sources said.

While the soldiers claimed the airplane was flying north of its normal route, a company official with Asiana Airlines, one of South Korea’s two major carriers, told Yonhap the plane never deviated from its normal course.

The report comes amid simmering tensions in the area, with the Yellow Sea maritime border the scene of deadly naval clashes between two Koreas in 1999, 2002 and November 2009.

One of five frontier islands there — Yeonpyeong — was shelled last November by the North in artillery attacks that killed four South Koreans including two civilians.

Since then, Seoul has deployed more troops and weapons to the frontline islands that have long been guarded by thousands of marines and naval forces.