S. Korean artillery mistakenly fired on DMZ

[James48]

Source: Yonhap News Agency

S. Korean artillery mistakenly fired on DMZ

PAJU, South Korea, Nov. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea mistakenly fired an artillery shell toward the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday afternoon and soon sent a message to North Korea that the firing was accidental, military officials said.

No casualties occurred from the accidental discharge that took place at around 3 p.m., the officials said.

An army artillery unit in the border town of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, mistakenly fired a 155mm towed howitzer while on training, they said. The shell landed some 14 kilometers north of the army base, on a hill on the South Korean side of the DMZ, they said.

"The army unit was not engaging in an artillery firing exercise. A shell that had been loaded previously was mistakenly fired," an army official said.


Read more: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/11/28/89/0301000000AEN20101128005300315F.HTML

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( I hate when that happens...)

[GliderGuider]

1. I thought fire discipline was king in artillery regiments?

So we have a warning shot...

Anybody notice that the new SK SecDef is their Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? The chain of command is now military all the way up to the Secretary.

Doubleplus ungood, thinks I...

[Lasher]

2. That's a pretty bad screwup.

And the timing couldn't be worse. Almost makes me wonder if some hawk(s) did it deliberately, hoping to provoke the north.

[herbm]

3. Jeez, wars get started like that.

[christx30]

13. I doubt it

not with a country as stable and peaceful as North Korea. They'll shrug it off and giggle.

[bluedigger]

4. As a former artilleryman, that was no accident.

Accidental discharges happen with small arms, not with artillery...

[thunder rising]

8. Ageed (except even with small arms there are no accidents) That commader's life is now shit.

A live round in his turret and he doesn't know.

[jberryhill]

5. "I was cleaning it, and if just went off"

[Poll_Blind]

6. AP: Rattled customers in South Korean Starbucks recount Howitzer, in line, that "Just went OFF!"

:rofl:

PB

[thunder rising]

10. but nobody is saying how it got into the tube ... it's a mystery.

[No Elephants]

7. MMA (Mistakenly, my ass.)

[Odin2005]

9. "Oops! That was an accident! I Swear, sir!!!"

[jmowreader]

11. Sounds like a piss-poor forward observer to me

Come on, guys: if you're going to drop a shell across the DMZ, you can at least learn to read your firing circles, okay?

[bluedigger]

12. I doubt it.

FO screw-up's usually result in firing on their own position. If it was the FDC, then it was a shot "out of safe" - which doesn't make much sense in this context, as both they and the FO's know the area like the back of their hands after training there for 60 odd years. This was either a gun bunny screw-up, or just a cover story for an intentional provocation, which is the most likely theory, imo. Call it a "test" of NK's resolve...