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Admiral seeks to allay safety fears

The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said the president had been in no danger during Thursday's Han Kuang Military Exercise despite the failure of two missiles which exploded less than 500m in front of his observation platform.

"It was merely a technical problem connected to the missiles. No operational errors were made by our crews during the exercise," said the ministry's spokesman Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (吳季方).

Wu said the location of the observation stand and the direction of the missiles and angles of fire had all been carefully calculated.

"We do not allow any glitches in security," Wu said.

Wu's remarks came as a response to a story carried by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday which reported that the US government is concerned about Taiwanese leaders regularly attending occasions together.

The story mentioned that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) and Chief of the General Staff Lee Tien-yu (李天羽) were all present on the observation deck during the military exercises. If missiles had hit the observation deck, the country's leadership could have been wiped out, the paper said.

Wu attributed the US government's comments as resulting from cultural differences.

"We [Taiwan and the US] think differently," said Wu ."They believe it is dangerous for [high-ranking officials] to show up together at the same time. However, we will never allow such an arrangement if there is any security concern."
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