Seoul, South Korea -Sutskaya Korea stopped training flights of the Air Force and all subsequent exercises in live fire Random Bombing Civil District FightersOfficials said on Friday, creating a potential failure for future annual military training with the United States.
On Thursday, two South Korean kF-16 fighters mistakenly released four MK-82 bombs in a civil area in Pocheon, a city near tense limit with North Korea. The bombing affected by almost 30 people, two of them, occurred when South Korean and US forces participated in live fire due to their broader Freedom Shield exercises that began on Monday.
This year's freedom exercises are the first major joint allied training, as President Trump returned to the post in January and is concerned about the prosperous military cooperation of North Korea with Russia.
South Korea and the United States announced the details of the exercise on Thursday, but it was marred by the news of the bombing that caused intensive public criticism in South Korea.
Chris Jung / Nurfat via Getty Images
Both South Korean and American militants stopped all the exercises in the live fire in South Korea. Military officials said the South Korean Air Force also stopped flights of all their planes, except for the aircraft and other emergencies.
Military officials said the shield's freedom training will continue on the planned plan, and they plan to restart the live fire and flights after they find the exact cause of the bombing and the formulation of preventive steps.
But if on Monday they will not be able to restore training when they start an exercise on the shield with US military personnel, it will damage the work of early parts of the exercise, observers say.
Possible problems with co -exercises by the United States on the South Korean
Li Illa, Korea Protection Expert in South Korea, said the suspension of the flight was particularly caused by “a really big problem in studying the two countries' operational plans.” He said that flying military aircraft would be important for determining their real possibilities, discussing the size of the US strengthening from the border and changes in the Allies' operational plans.
Initial studies found that the pilot of one of the KF-16 entered the wrong coordinates for the bombing site. Officials said the pilots of two planes had more than 200-400 hours of flight. But Lee said they probably saw the KF-16 for only two to three years.
South Korean and American militants have already started field exercises due to freedom with a shield, and on Thursday the living fire was one of them. Colonel Ryan Donald, a spokesman for US military personnel in South Korea, confirmed that US officials participated in a live fire on Thursday, but stated that the US Air Force planes did not participate.
“We perceive this incident very seriously. We closely coordinate the Ministry of Defense of Rock and strive for a thorough and transparent investigation,” Donald said in a statement, using the acronym of South Korea's official name.
The incident happened when North Korea increased its fiery rhetoric against the United States and South Korea because it views their joint training as rehearsal of the invasion. The North Korean State Information Agency warned on Friday that the US and South Korea “will have to pay for their stupid and ill -advised military exercises.”
Mr. Trump said he would refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong -un again to revive diplomacy, but Pyongyang did not respond to any above that he could do.
Seoul was concerned that Mr. Trump could scale US-South-Kare military training, because during his first term he complained about the cost of bilateral exercises and once unilaterally announced the cancellation of one seed after the first summit with Kim.
But Lee said that Mr. Trump now knows the importance of South Korea in politics in America in Indo-Pacific and Chinese politics and did not reduce the exercises from South Korea.
According to South Korea troops, field training is being held this year this year, which is held with freedom, provides 16 field training at the brigade level, which is compared to 10 such exercises.