South Korea error: Troops fire at own airliner,miss target

South Korean Marines fired rifles at a South Korean commercial aircraft flying near the sea border with North Korea.

South Korean Marines fired rifles at a South Korean commercial aircraft flying near the sea border with North Korea,thinking it was one of the communist Norths jet fighters,but they never hit their target,military sources said on Saturday.

The shooting illustrates the level of tension between the two Koreas,still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty,which came close to all-out war last year.

A Marine Corps spokesman said two soldiers guarding an island on the waters off the Souths western city of Incheon fired their K-2 rifles for about 10 minutes at around 4 am Friday.

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The plane was later identified as an Asiana Airlines Airbus A320 flying from China making its descent into Incheon,Seouls main airport.

A Defence Ministry source said the plane,carrying 119 passengers and crew,was undamaged as it was about 500 to 600 metres out of the range of the hand-held K-2 rifles.

Yonhap News Agency and other local media said the soldiers believed the plane was flying north of the normal air corridor. Asiana officials told the news agency the plane never left its scheduled course.

Yonhap and other news reports quoted Marine Corps officers as saying troops would undergo thorough training on how to identify civil aircraft.