Two ROK Army Soldiers Killed
From Yonhap:
Two South Korean soldiers were found shot dead at a military base in a remote area about 130 km east of Seoul on Friday, the Army said.
"The Army corporals, both in their 20s, were on guard duty at an ammunition depot when a fellow soldier heard shots about 11:50 a.m. at the engineering unit in Heongseong, Gangwon Province," an Army official said. "The Army is investigating the incident."
The soldiers were carrying K-1 rifles with dozens of live bullets at the time of the incident, he added.One soldier, whose surname was Lee, was shot on the neck, and the other one, identified only by his family name Han, was shot in the belly, according to the Army.
"All the shots appear to have been fired from Lee’s rifle," the official said.
I am obviously speculating here, but I wonder if there was an accidental discharge that killed soldier hit in the belly and the other soldier shocked from the accident turned the gun on himself? I wonder if it is standard practice for the ROK Army to have their rifles loaded when on guard duty?
HT: Nomad
As I understand it, Korean soldiers are given magazines with both blanks and live rounds in it when they are actually given ammunition when on guard duty. Since these soldiers were guarding an ASP, they would have had live ammunition. The reason for the mix of ammunition is to first scare away any possible intruder with the first few rounds, and then to bang away with live rounds if necessary.
I've also heard of cases where the soldiers are given two magazines, one with the blanks and another with the live ammo–the magazine with the blanks usually is what is in the rifle. In both cases, since the soldiers do not use blank firing adaptors, the rifles have to be manually charged after every shot.
It is possible that these guys were just joking around and Lee thought he had blank rounds in the rifle, but I tend to doubt it. The sounds of blanks going off would have brought a firestorm of pain from the squad leader or platoon sergeant. I'll be anxious to see what more information comes out of the investigation.
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Hi there Haeksaeng.
How've you been?
For those soldeirs doing guard duty on the DMZ and ammunition storage facilities, they are issued with live ammunition.
For soldiers standing guard duty at the gates and perimeter of military installations other than the installations mentioned above, they are only issued with blanks.
One common thing about the above procedures is that when they are issued with the magazines containing the blanks or the live bullets, there would be a strip of sticky paper with red stamps stuck on top of the top row of bullets and the magazines. This way when the magazines are turned in at the end of guard duty, the unit COs would know whether or not all the bullets are accounted for.
mins0306, good to see/read you again! Thanks for the correction.