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U.S. offers technical help after Taiwan's missile mishap: minister

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 11:35:30

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) The United States has been notified about Taiwan's accidental firing of a anti-ship missile on July 1 and has offered to provide technical assistance, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) said Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the Legislature, Lee said his ministry informed the American Institute in Taiwan almost immediately after the missile was fired accidentally from a Navy corvette in Kaohsiung on July 1.

The U.S. expressed concern about the incident and offered technical assistance, Lee said without elaborating.

The representative offices of the Philippines and Vietnam in Taiwan were also notified about the incident, since two of the three crew members on a fishing boat that was hit by the missile were from those two Southeast Asian countries, Lee said.

The missile, fired from inside a naval base in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, ripped through the fishing vessel near the offshore county of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait, killing the boat captain and leaving the three crew members injured.

The Hsiung Feng III supersonic missile, developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, was fired accidentally, the Navy said

The Ministry of National Defense later said disciplinary action will be brought against six Navy personnel, including Kao Chia-chun, the petty officer who had fired the missile during a test drill.

The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, meanwhile, has begun to investigate the legal responsibilities of the people involved in the incident.

Kao claimed that he made the mistake due to insufficient sleep in the run-up to the important drill and inspection, according to an initial investigation. Prosecutors were told that Chen Ming-hsiu (陳銘修), a chief petty officer who was Kao's only supervisor at the time, left him alone to get a drink of water.

(By Tai Ya-chen and Kay Liu)
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