S. Korean Marine Kills Four in Shooting Spree

W460

A South Korean Marine corporal went on a shooting spree on Monday, killing four colleagues and wounding one other on an island near the tense border with North Korea, the military said.

The 19-year-old corporal, identified only as Kim, was himself injured by an exploding hand grenade, they said, adding that investigations are under way into whether he tried to commit suicide.

Kim opened fire with a K-2 rifle at a Marine Corps barracks on Ganghwa Island 60 km west of Seoul.

A staff sergeant and three other Marines were killed while a private was injured and taken to hospital, said Corps spokesman Kim Tae-Un.

"After opening fire with a K-2 rifle, the corporal was found injured in a separate place where a hand grenade was detonated," the spokesman said.

An investigation is under way into whether the shooter detonated the grenade to commit suicide, he said, noting that his injuries were preventing him from answering questions about his motives.

The Marine Corps is charged with guarding "front line" islands in the Yellow Sea near the disputed border with the North.

Monday's incident will likely raise questions about discipline standards in the South's largely conscript 650,000-strong military.

Eight soldiers were killed and two seriously injured in 2005 when a soldier threw a grenade and sprayed bullets over sleeping colleagues at a front line guard post north of Seoul.

The soldier in the 2005 incident alleged senior colleagues had bullied him.

In 2008 an army private struggling to adapt to military life threw a grenade at sleeping colleagues, injuring five.

And last month two Marines on another front line island opened fire at a civilian passenger plane after mistaking the Airbus for a North Korean intruder. The aircraft was not hit.

Able-bodied South Korean men must undergo at least two years' military service, and some complain of abuse and harassment of junior soldiers by their seniors.

Marines and other military units have been on high alert along the disputed Yellow Sea border for months.

Tensions rose after the South accused the North of torpedoing a warship in March 2010, killing 46 sailors.

The North denied the warship attack but shelled a South Korean border island last November, killing two civilians and two Marines.

The North's military has recently warned of "merciless" retaliation for anti-Pyongyang slogans displayed by South Korean troops near the land border. The two countries have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended only with an armistice instead of a full peace treaty.

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