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Tsai orders review of missile incident

Navy officers explain missile incident

Tsai orders review of missile incident

Navy officers explain missile incident

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen ordered the National Security Council and the Ministry of National Defense to find the causes for the accidental firing of a missile by the Navy, the Presidential Office said Friday.
During the morning, a Chinchiang-class corvette at a Navy harbor near Kaohsiung fired a supersonic Hsiung Feng III missile which landed in the Taiwan Strait near Penghu. The case was described as human error, while an investigation was still continuing into whether the death of a fisherman in an explosion on a fishing boat was linked to the incident.
Tsai, who was on a stopover in Los Angeles on the final stage of her Latin America trip, called for a suitable solution to the matter, presidential spokesman Alex Huang said in Taipei.
After the incident occurred, the military immediately notified the NSC, which then informed the president’s aides in Los Angeles, Huang said. They steadily updated their information and presented a report to Tsai. She told the NSC and the MND to get to the bottom of the matter and to take the appropriate measures, Huang said.
Tsai left Taiwan on June 24 for visits to Panama and Paraguay with stopovers in Miami and Los Angeles. The president is expected to return home from her first official foreign visit since taking office last May 20 on Saturday.
The Navy said its Hsiung Feng III missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China. The ship from which it was fired, had been conducting a drill inside Zuoying naval base in Kaohsiung, the Navy said.
Human error was the most likely cause for the incident, while a military spokesman also discounted reports that Chinese intelligence operators might approach to try and gain sensitive information about the workings of the missile.