{"id":18886,"date":"2025-03-06T12:41:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T06:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=18886"},"modified":"2025-03-06T12:41:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T06:56:24","slug":"south-korea-air-force-jet-accidentally-drops-bombs-injures-civilians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/south-korea-air-force-jet-accidentally-drops-bombs-injures-civilians\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea air force jet accidentally drops bombs, injures civilians"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

South Korea’s Air Force said Thursday that one of its fighter jets had accidentally dropped eight bombs in the wrong place during a training exercise, resulting in civilian injuries.<\/p>\n

“Eight MK-82 general-purpose bombs were abnormally released from an Air Force KF-16 aircraft, landing outside the designated firing range,” the Air Force said.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred around 10:00 am (0100 GMT) in Pocheon, around 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of the heavily fortified border with the nuclear-armed North.<\/p>\n

“We deeply regret the unintended release of the bombs, which resulted in civilian casualties, and wish those injured a swift recovery,” the Air Force said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It said it had established an accident response committee to investigate the incident, and said it would “take all necessary measures, including compensation for damages.”<\/p>\n

The Air Force said the military jet had been “participating in a joint live-fire exercise involving both the Air Force and Army.”<\/p>\n

South Korea was holding combined live-fire drills with the United States Thursday in Pocheon, the Yonhap news agency reported.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s National Fire Agency said that the bombs were “presumed to have fallen on a village during a South Korea-US joint exercise.”<\/p>\n

This resulted in “casualties and property damage, with many displaced residents,” it said, adding that four people had been seriously injured and three suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n

One church building and sections of two houses were damaged, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

– ‘Like a thunderclap’ –<\/strong><\/p>\n

One local resident, who gave only his surname Park, told Yonhap that he had been at home, watching television when the accident happened.<\/p>\n

“I suddenly heard an enormous explosion, like a thunderclap, and the whole house shook. When I went outside, everything was in chaos,” Park said.<\/p>\n

Even at a senior centre about a kilometre away, the accident was felt.<\/p>\n

“A sudden explosion shook the building. The windows shattered, and one of our teachers was injured and taken to the hospital,” the centre’s director, surnamed Yu, told Yonhap.<\/p>\n

“Fortunately, none of the seniors were hurt, but they were so frightened that we sent them all home,” they added.<\/p>\n

Joint South Korea-US “Freedom Shield” military exercises, one of the security allies’ largest annual joint exercises, are set to begin later this month.<\/p>\n

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.<\/p>\n

The United States stations tens of thousands of soldiers in the South, in part to protect Seoul against Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

In 2022, a South Korean Hyunmu-2 short-range ballistic missile accidentally crashed into a military golf course in the South’s eastern Gangwon province, after it was fired in response to a North Korean missile launch.<\/p>\n

The missile did not explode and no one was injured in that incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korea’s Air Force said Thursday that one of its fighter jets had accidentally dropped eight bombs in the wrong place during a training exercise, resulting in civilian injuries. “Eight MK-82 general-purpose bombs were abnormally released from an Air Force KF-16 aircraft, landing outside the designated firing range,” the Air Force said. The incident occurred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18888,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886\/revisions\/18888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}