Pocheon: Fifteen people were injured Thursday after fighter jets mistakenly dropped bombs on South Korea's civilian area during live-fire drills. Two KF-16 fighter jets dropped four respective air-to-surface bombs by mistake outside a live-fire range in Pocheon, some 40 km north of Seoul, at about 10:04 a.m. local time (0104 GMT), according to the defense ministry.
According to Namibia Press Agency, the misguided bombing resulted from pilot errors, with one pilot entering target coordinates incorrectly. An investigation is underway regarding the mistaken bombing by the other pilot. The accident destroyed a church, houses, and vehicles, resulting in 15 injuries, including two soldiers and two foreigners. Two male civilians suffered serious injuries to the face and shoulder, though these are not life-threatening. The number of casualties could rise as more people reportedly requested treatment.
Earlier in the day, South Korea and the United States conducted a combined live-fire exercise in Pocheon, using more than 160 pieces of military hardware, including tanks, self-propelled howitzers, helicopters, and fighter jets. The South Korean military has decided to suspend all live-fire drills until the exact cause of the accident is identified.
Pocheon Mayor Baek Young-hyun urged a halt to all military exercises and called on the government and military to take follow-up measures to alleviate public anxiety. The accident occurred ahead of a scheduled joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States later this month. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced that the combined forces of South Korea and the United States would conduct an annual springtime war game, called Freedom Shield (FS), from March 10 to March 20.
Seoul and Washington insist the joint drill is defensive in nature, while the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has criticized it as a rehearsal for invasion. People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), a South Korean civic group, issued a statement calling for the cancellation or reduction of the scheduled military exercise, citing the dangers of large-scale war exercises near inter-Korean border areas.