Incident attributed to language-related misunderstanding

US Air Force authorities are denying media reports stating that a U-2 spy plane has crashed in South Korea.

"There was no accident involving US aircraft today," Arthur Bosker, a spokesperson of the 7th US Air Force based in Osan, south of Seoul, said.

The Yonhap news agenty, YTN cable news and other media had reported that a high altitude surveillance aircraft had crashed just south of Seoul. No further details had been provided.

Apparently the whole thing started when an anonymous caller told the Yonhap agency that "something went down" near the village of Hwaseong, where the agency has a bureau. The report spiraled into a U-2 crash after a South Korean military official misinterpreted a denial on the part of US military officials.

"While I was talking to a US air force official, I misinterpreted what I was told (in English) by the other side and gave the press corps (covering the defence ministry) wrong information," Yonhap news quoted the unidentified South Korean military official as saying.

Another U-2 crashed in January of 2003 in a remote region further south of Seoul. The pilot survived and was not hurt, but three people on the ground were injured.

Tensions still run fairly high in the area, as North and South Korea are still technically at war, even though more than 50 years have passed since the end of hostilities related to the Korean War. North Korea regularly accuses the US of operating surveillance aircraft over their country, and the accusations have increased ever since President Bush took office in 2001.

FMI: www.af.mil, http://english.yna.co.kr