S. Korean military sorry for jet incident

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- The South Korean military apologized Monday for shooting at a commercial airplane carrying 119 passengers and crew.

The Asiana Airlines flight was preparing to land Friday morning at Incheon International Airport, 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Seoul, when two soldiers fired at the aircraft after mistaking it for a North Korean military jet.

The soldiers were on Gyodong Island near the North Korean border. After firing 99 rounds, they reported the incident.

The South Korean military claims the rounds were only warning shots from K-2 rifles, and there was no damage to the aircraft because it was out of range.

"I sincerely apologize for causing the public concern over the incident," Col. Lee Bung-Woo, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.

The aircraft, on its way from Chengdu, China, was "flying on its regular route under command of the flight control tower," Asiana Airlines spokesman Ki Won Suh said.

Asiana confirmed two other flights flew on the same route 20 minutes before and after the firing incident, raising questions about why only one flight concerned the soldiers. The passengers and pilots were unaware they had been fired upon until they landed.

"We understand the guards need more education on how to distinguish civilian airplanes," said Lee, the military spokesman. But the South Korean military said it will not reprimand the two soldiers because they acted in accordance with procedure.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two Koreas. Pyongyang said it would cut off all ties with Seoul last month, accusing the South of waging psychological warfare by sending propaganda into North Korea undermining the regime.

CNN's Jiyeon Lee contributed to this report

CNN

South Korean troops shoot at civilian airliner by mistake (Reuters)

SEOUL, Jun (Reuters) – South Korean Marines fired rifles at a South Korean commercial aircraft flying near the sea border with North Korea, thinking it was one of the communist North's jet fighters, but they never hit their target, military sources said on Saturday.

The shooting illustrates the level of tension between the two Koreas, still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty, which came close to all-out war last year.

A Marine Corps spokesman said two soldiers guarding an island on the waters off the South's western city of Incheon fired their K-2 rifles for about 10 minutes at around 4 a.m. on Friday.

The plane was later identified as an Asiana Airlines Airbus A320 flying from China making its descent into Incheon, Seoul's main airport.

A defense ministry source said the plane, carrying 119 passengers and crew, was undamaged as it was about 500 to 600 meters out of the range of the hand-held K-2 rifles.

Yonhap News Agency and other local media said the soldiers believed the plane was flying north of the normal air corridor. Asiana officials told the news agency the plane never left its scheduled course.

"We checked yesterday through the air force and the airport control center to make sure there were no abnormalities such as being off course," Yonhap quoted a company official as saying.

An airline official confirmed the plane was an Airbus A320 but made no other comment.

Yonhap and other news reports quoted Marine Corps officers as saying troops would undergo thorough training on how to identify civil aircraft. Airlines will be asked to ensure their planes do not deviate from set courses.

The North denies responsibility in the sinking last March of a South Korean warship and says it was provoked in the second incident, the shelling of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong after the South test-fired shells into disputed waters.

The two attacks killed about 50 South Koreans.

The North this month rejected a proposal from Seoul for a series of three presidential summits after a secret meeting of officials from the two countries. The North denounced the South's call for an apology for the two attacks.

In between the attacks, North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment program which opens a second route to make a nuclear bomb alongside its plutonium program.

(Reporting by Sung-won Shim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Yahoo! News

Mystery North Korean visitor in China veiled by security (Reuters)

CHANGCHUN, China (Reuters) – A train from North Korea headed through China on Saturday on secretive journey that may be a mission by leader Kim Jong-il's to shore up ties with Pyongyang's sole major supporter.

Neither Beijing nor Pyongyang has said whether Kim, and maybe his son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un, is visiting China on the distinctive North Korean train. Both sides are habitually secretive about such trips.

But the tight security and unscheduled route of the train echoed past visits by the elder Kim, who visited China twice last year to woo his powerful neighbor.

On Saturday, the delegation rolled into Changchun, capital of Jilin province. A convoy of cars that included a black Mercedes Benz with darkened windows took mystery guests into a heavily guarded hotel.

Later the motorcade left for the train station, and the visitors continued their rail journey, passed through Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, and in the evening headed in the direction of the national capital, Beijing, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

There was no certainty, however, that the train would stop in Beijing. Kim's movements are always cloaked in secrecy, and in the past, China and North Korea have acknowledged his visits only near or after their end.

Japan's Kyodo news agency issued a photograph that appeared to show the 69-year-old Kim Jong-il, with his distinctive frizz of hair and olive-green clothing, leaving a hotel in Mudanjiang, where he apparently stopped on Friday before going to Changchun.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao is currently visiting Japan for a summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, both foes of Pyongyang.

North Korea rattled the region last year with its increasingly belligerent stance toward the far richer South, and has drawn closer to neighbor Beijing for economic and diplomatic support.

STRATEGIC BULWARK

China has sought to steady ties with Seoul and Tokyo, but also sees North Korea as a strategic bulwark against the United States and its regional allies. In recent years, China has sought to shore up relations with the North with increased aid and trade and frequent visits there by leaders.

The arrival in China on Friday of a train from North Korea prompted South Korean officials and media to conclude it was carrying Kim Jong-un, anointed last year as heir apparent to his father, but speculation then shifted to it being the father.

A South Korean newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, reported that Kim Jong-un, in his late 20s, was not among the North Korean visitors, citing government sources.

Kim Jong-il travels by train due to his fear of flying, and visited China last May and August. Northeast China could play an important part in North Korea's economy, and Kim Jong-il has traveled there before, including last year when Chinese President Hu prodded him to open up the North's economy.

During that trip, Kim told Hu that Pyongyang remained committed to dismantling nuclear facilities in line with previous international agreements.

In November, however, the North showed a U.S. nuclear physicist what it said was a uranium enrichment facility, which could ultimately open a second route to make a nuclear bomb along with its plutonium programme.

Kim Jong-il is widely believed by South Korean officials and experts to have suffered a stroke in 2008. But his health appears to have improved since the visits to China last year, prompting diplomats and analysts to re-evaluate their assessment of the pace of succession.

(Additional reporting by Maxim Duncan in CHANGCHUN, China; Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL; Additional reporting and writing by Chris Buckley in BEIJING; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Yahoo! News

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Korean man found crucified, wearing thorn crown

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry, South Korean police said Wednesday.

A man wearing only underwear, with a wound on the side of his torso and nylon strings tied around his neck, arms and stomach, was found crucified Sunday in Mungyong, about 115 miles southeast of Seoul, said Chung Ji-chun, chief of the violent crime section at Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency.

Two smaller crosses were erected on each side of the cross he was nailed to, Chung said.

Police also found nails, a hammer, an electric drill, pieces of wood and instructions on how to build crosses inside a tent near the scene, Chung said. An SUV belonging to the dead man was found nearby.

Police are waiting for a forensic report to determine the exact time and cause of the man's death and whether it was a homicide or suicide.

Chung identified the man as a 58-year old surnamed Kim.

Popular representations of the death of Jesus Christ depict him crucified between the crosses of two thieves, wearing a crown of thorns, a white cloth over his loins, with a wound on his side from a Roman soldier's spear.

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