S. Korean soldiers fire at Asiana passenger jet

Two soldiers at a guard post on Gyodong island, just 1.7 kilometres (one mile) south of the North Korean coast, fired their K-2 rifles on Friday towards the plane, descending as it approached Seoul\'s Incheon International Airport.

Ties between the two Koreas are at their lowest ebb in more than a decade after Pyongyang announced late last month it was breaking all contacts with the South\'s conservative government.

The South Korean Asiana aircraft was flying southeast over Jumun island, 12 kilometres south of Gyodong, towards Incheon, when the soldiers fired a total of 99 rounds including two blanks, Yonhap news agency said.

"The firing continued (for) about 10 minutes but the plane was too far off the rifle\'s range and it did not receive any damage," Yonhap quoted a Marine Corps official as saying.

"When the plane appeared over Jumun island, soldiers mistook it as a North Korean military aircraft and fired."

A Marine Corps spokesman confirmed the incident to AFP but declined to give further details.

An aviation controller told AFP that the Asiana Airbus 321 was flying from the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu with 119 people on board, including crew members, and was following a normal route.

"It was flying normally. It did not deviate from its normal route," the controller said.

An Asiana spokesman said there was no damage to the plane as it was too far away from the guard post, adding that the military had inquired whether the plane had suffered any damage.

Following the incident, the Marine Corps will step up training for soldiers to help them distinguish between civilian aircraft and enemy planes, Yonhap said.

South Korean soldiers had been alerted to possible provocative acts by North Korea amid simmering cross-border tensions.

After a few months of relative calm, since late May the North has been using harsher rhetoric against the South\'s conservative government -- describing it as a US puppet bent on fuelling confrontation.

The South\'s Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin has told frontline troops that if the North Koreans attack, they should strike back immediately without waiting for orders from top commanders about how to respond.

"Don\'t ask your commanders whether to fire back or not. Take actions first and then report afterwards," Kim was quoted as saying when he visited the western frontline in March.

The minister\'s remarks came after the South\'s military was widely criticised for a perceived weak and slow response when North Korea last November shelled Yeonpyeong island, one of five frontline islands, and killed four people.

The arrival by boat in South Korea of nine refugees from the North on June 11 has further heightened tensions.

South Korea has rejected Pyongyang\'s demand to send the nine back to the communist state, but the North\'s Red Cross warned Thursday that relations could worsen unless they are returned immediately.

Seoul\'s policy is to accept all North Koreans who wish to stay in the South, while repatriating those who stray across the sea border by accident.

The arrival in February of a boatload of North Koreans sparked weeks of acrimony. That boat drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog, possibly accidentally.

The North\'s military has also threatened an attack in protest at the use by some South Korean troops of photos of Pyongyang\'s ruling family as rifle-range targets. The practice has been stopped but the North is demanding an apology.

Media reports on Friday said the South has deployed missiles capable of hitting the North Korean capital Pyongyang near the tense border.

The deployment of the surface-to-surface missiles was in response to a recent rise in tensions, Yonhap news agency and Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported.

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