S. Korea's Military apologises for firing at civilian plane

South Korea's military apologized to the nation Monday for last week's incident in which two Marines fired rifles at a civilian jetliner by misidentifying it as a North Korean military aircraft. "The military sincerely apologizes to our people for causing worries over the incident," Col. Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told reporters. The military won't reprimand the two Marines, South Korea's (Yonhap) quoted Lee as saying, noting they acted in line with engagement rules. Instead, the military will strengthen training for soldiers at guard posts to better distinguish civilian planes. "The Marines don''t deserve punishment because they didn't do anything wrong," Lee said. "But we will map out ways to better educate soldiers of frontline units to prevent such incidents from happening again. " The two Marines guarding an island near the tense Yellow Sea border with the North fired their K-2 rifles at the Asiana Airlines plane flying in fog over the sea in a pre-dawn incident on Friday. The plane with 119 people on board was undamaged and no one was hurt, as the plane was flying out of range of the fire.