|
April
14, 2005 ㅡ Five months after an Iraqi Kurdish
militiaman was accidentally shot by a South Korean
soldier, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff made
the incident public yesterday.
According to an officer on the staff, on Dec. 7, a
day before South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun paid
a surprise visit to South Korean troops at their
base near Irbil in nothern Iraq, a South Korean
soldier, identified only by his last name Hong,
mistakenly discharged his K-2 rifle and hit a
Kurdish militiaman who was helping guard the South
Korean compound.
The Korean soldier was apparently unaware that his
rifle contained live ammunition. Depending on the
security situation, South Korean soldiers carry live
ammunition, but do not load it, or just carry rifles
without ammunition.
The soldier is serving an 18- month prison term for
negligence. Compensation of $10,000 was paid to the
family of the Kurdish man.
The official said that the incident was not made
public at the time for security reasons.
However, at the time of the accident, South Korean
lawmakers in the National Assembly were battling
over whether to extend the mandate of South Korean
troops deployed to Iraq for another year.
The Assembly had approved the deployment of troops
to Iraq in February last year, but actual dispatch
was only finished in September. The deployment was
carried out in secret, amid public protests. At the
end of December, in an extraordinary session, the
National Assembly extended the stay of the South
Korean troops by one year.
Kim Seong-wook, an officer with the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, denied yesterday that the delay in the public
announcement took place for political reasons.
"Since legal procedures took place, we thought the
matter was settled," he said.
"But then we had someone asking about the incident
and decided to make it public so that there wouldn't
be any misunderstandings," he said.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com
Top |
®
