South Korea was holding combined live-fire drills with the United States on Thursday in Pocheon, the Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea’s National Fire Agency said that the bombs were “presumed to have fallen on a village during a South Korea-US joint exercise”.
The Gyeonggi-do Bukbu Fire Services said in a statement that 15 people were wounded, out of which two were seriously hurt.
One church building and sections of two houses were also damaged, according to the National Fire Agency.
“LIKE A THUNDERCLAP”
One local resident, who gave only his surname Park, told Yonhap that he had been at home, watching television when the accident happened.
“I suddenly heard an enormous explosion, like a thunderclap, and the whole house shook. When I went outside, everything was in chaos,” Park said.
Even at a senior centre about a kilometre away, the accident was felt.
“A sudden explosion shook the building. The windows shattered, and one of our teachers was injured and taken to the hospital,” the centre’s director, surnamed Yu, told Yonhap.
“Fortunately, none of the seniors were hurt, but they were so frightened that we sent them all home,” they added.
Joint South Korea-US “Freedom Shield” military exercises, one of the security allies’ largest annual joint exercises, are set to begin later this month.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The US stations tens of thousands of soldiers in the South, in part to protect Seoul against Pyongyang.
In 2022, a South Korean Hyunmu-2 short-range ballistic missile accidentally crashed into a military golf course in the South’s eastern Gangwon province, after it was fired in response to a North Korean missile launch.
The missile did not explode and no one was injured in that incident.
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