South Korea pauses military drills after accidental bombing

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea suspended the training flights of air force aircraft and all live-fire drills following its fighter jets’ accidental bombing of a civilian area, officials said Friday, posing a potential setback to its upcoming annual military training with the United States.

On Thursday, two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets mistakenly released four MK-82 bombs each on a civilian area in Pocheon, a city near the tense border with North Korea. The bombing, which injured nearly 30 people, two of them seriously, occurred when South Korean and U.S. forces were engaging in a live-fire drill in connection with their broader Freedom Shield command post exercise set to begin Monday.

This year’s Freedom Shield exercise is the allies’ first major joint training since President Donald Trump returned to office in January and comes amid concerns about North Korea’s booming military cooperation with Russia.

South Korea and the U.S. announced details of the exercises Thursday, but it was overshadowed by the news of the bombing, which drew intense public criticism in South Korea.

Both the South Korean and U.S. militaries halted all live-fire exercises across South Korea. Military officials said that South Korea’s air force also stopped the flights of its entire aircrafts except surveillance planes and others needed for emergency situations.

Military officials said the Freedom Shield training will proceed as scheduled and they plan to restart live-fire and flight training after they find the exact cause of the bombing and formulate preventative steps.

But if they fail to resume the paused training by Monday when they kick off the Freedom Shield exercise with the U.S. military, that will hurt the workings of the early parts of the exercise, observers say.

Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, said the suspension of flight training would particularly cause “really a big problem in examining the two countries’ operational plans.” He said flying warplanes would be essential to determining their actual capabilities, discussing the size of reinforcements of U.S. aircraft from abroad and modifying the allies’ operational plans.

Initial investigations found the pilot of one of the KF-16s entered the wrong coordinates for a bombing site. Officials said the pilots of two KF-16s had more than 200-400 hours of flying time. Lee said they likely piloted KF-16s only two to three years.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries have already begun field exercises in connection with the Freedom Shield, and Thursday’s live-fire drill was one of them. Col. Ryan Donald, spokesperson for the U.S. military in South Korea, confirmed that American servicemembers were participating in Thursday’s live-fire training but no U.S. air force aircraft was still involved.

“We take this incident very seriously. We are coordinating closely with the ROK Ministry of Defense and are committed to a thorough and transparent investigation,” Donald said in a statement, using the acronym of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

The incident happened as North Korea was ramping up its fiery rhetoric against the U.S. and South Korea, as it views their joint drills as invasion rehearsals. North Korea’s state news agency warned Friday that the U.S. and South Korea “will have to pay dearly for their stupid and reckless war drills.”

Trump has said he would reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again to revive diplomacy, but North Korea hasn’t responded to his overture.

In South Korea, there were concerns that Trump might scale back U.S.-South Korean military drills because, during his first term, he complained about the cost of bilateral exercises and once unilaterally announced the cancellation of one drill after his first summit with Kim.

But Lee said Trump now knows the importance of South Korea in America’s Indo-Pacific and China policies and won’t downsize drills with South Korea.

This year’s field training being held alongside the Freedom Shield involves 16 brigade-level field trainings, up from 10 such drills last year, according to South Korea’s military.

韩国首尔——韩国官员周五表示，在战斗机意外轰炸平民区后，韩国暂停了空军飞机的训练飞行和所有实弹演习，这可能会对即将举行的与美国的年度联合军事训练造成挫折。

周四，两架韩国KF-16战斗机在靠近朝韩紧张边境的抱川市一处平民区误投了四枚MK-82炸弹。此次爆炸造成近30人受伤，其中两人伤势严重。事发时，韩美军队正在进行实弹演习，这是即将于周一开始的“自由之盾”指挥所联合演习的一部分。

今年的“自由之盾”演习是自唐纳德·特朗普总统1月份重返工作岗位以来，盟军首次举行的大规模联合训练，而此时正值人们对朝鲜与俄罗斯蓬勃发展的军事合作感到担忧之际。

韩国和美国周四公布了演习的细节，但爆炸事件的消息掩盖了演习的进展，该事件在韩国引发了强烈的公众批评。

韩国和美国军方均暂停了在韩国境内的所有实弹演习。军方官员表示，韩国空军也停止了除侦察机和紧急情况下所需飞机以外的所有飞机的飞行。

军方官员表示，“自由之盾”训练将按计划进行，他们计划在查明爆炸的确切原因并制定预防措施后，重新开始实弹射击和飞行训练。

但观察人士表示，如果他们在周一与美军开始“自由之盾”演习之前未能恢复暂停的训练，那将损害演习初期阶段的运作。

韩国国防网络专家李日宇表示，暂停飞行训练将“对两国作战计划的审查造成严重问题”。他指出，战机飞行训练对于确定两国的实际作战能力、讨论从国外增援美军战机的规模以及修改盟军作战计划至关重要。

初步调查发现，其中一架KF-16战斗机的飞行员输入了错误的轰炸地点坐标。官员表示，两名KF-16战斗机的飞行员飞行时间均在200至400小时之间。李表示，他们驾驶KF-16战斗机的时间可能只有两到三年。

韩国和美国军队已开始进行与“自由之盾”联合军演相关的实地演习，周四的实弹演习便是其中之一。驻韩美军发言人瑞安·唐纳德上校证实，美军人员参加了周四的实弹演习，但美军空军飞机并未参与其中。

“我们非常重视这起事件。我们正在与韩国国防部密切协调，并致力于进行彻底、透明的调查，”唐纳德在一份声明中说，他使用了韩国正式国名“大韩民国”的缩写。

事件发生之际，朝鲜正加大对美国和韩国的抨击力度，因为它认为两国的联合军演是入侵演习。朝鲜官方通讯社周五警告称，美国和韩国“将为其愚蠢鲁莽的战争演习付出惨痛代价”。

特朗普曾表示，他将再次与朝鲜领导人金正恩接触，以重启外交，但朝鲜尚未回应他的提议。

在韩国，人们担心特朗普可能会缩减美韩联合军事演习的规模，因为在他第一个任期内，他曾抱怨双边演习的成本，并且在与金正恩举行首次峰会后，单方面宣布取消一次演习。

但李表示，特朗普现在明白了韩国在美国印太地区和对华政策中的重要性，不会缩减与韩国的联合军演规模。

据韩国军方称，今年与“自由之盾”演习同期举行的实地训练包括16项旅级实地训练，比去年的10项演习有所增加。