Eight South Korean soldiers were killed and two others were seriously injured yesterday when a soldier went on a shooting rampage near the tense inter-Korean border, the defense ministry said.
The man, identified as Private First Class Kim, 22, threw a grenade and fired from his rifle into an army barracks where his colleagues were sleeping in northeastern Yeoncheon early yesterday, the ministry said.
Kim, under investigation after turning himself in, said he went on the shooting spree in a fit of rage because his senior colleagues had bullied him, according to the ministry.
PHOTO: AFP
"Eight soldiers were killed and two others were seriously injured in the incident involving a grenade and a rifle at a guard post at 2:30am Sunday," the ministry said in a statement.
Twenty-five soldiers in their 20s were sleeping in the barracks at the time.
As well as the hand grenade, Kim used about 40 rounds of ammunition, leaving platoon leader Lieutenant Kim Jong-myung and seven other enlisted soldiers dead.
Two others who suffered shot wounds to their legs were immediately airlifted to a nearby hospital to undergo surgery. They were in serious but not critical condition.
Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-woong apologized for the shooting rampage, which he was told by President Roh Moo-hyun to thoroughly investigate in order to prevent such an incident from happening again.
"As a minister in charge of national defense, I lower my head and make a sincere apology for the incident," Yoon told a televised news conference.
"I express deep condolences to the soldiers and their bereaved family members. We will take through follow-up measures to prevent a similar incident from happening."
President Roh Moo-hyun earlier told Yoon over the phone: "It is very regrettable ... Look into the cause of the incident and take all the steps to prevent its recurrence."
Ministry officials refrained from commenting on the cause of the tragedy which they said was still under scrutiny, however they largely blamed it on stress in military life.
The attacker turned himself in shortly after the incident at Yeoncheon, 62km north of Seoul, which is just next to the tense military border with North Korea.
"He got into a temper following verbal abuse by his senior soldiers. Details are still under investigation," Brigadier General Jang Seok-kyu, army spokesman, told a news conference. Kim was not found to have any history of mental illness, Jang added.
The incident happened at a small guard post near the inter-Korean border, known as the Demilitarized Zone, that has separated the communist North and capitalist South for five decades.
Every South Korean man serves two years of mandatory military service.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
EASING ANXIETY: The new guide includes a section encouraging people to discuss the threat of war with their children and teach them how to recognize disinformation The Ministry of National Defense’s All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency yesterday released its updated civil defense handbook, which defines the types of potential military aggression by an “enemy state” and self-protection tips in such scenarios. The agency has released three editions of the handbook since 2022, covering information from the preparation of go-bags to survival tips during natural disasters and war. Compared with the previous edition, released in 2023, the latest version has a clearer focus on wartime scenarios. It includes a section outlining six types of potential military threats Taiwan could face, including destruction of critical infrastructure and most undersea cables, resulting in
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
RSS