[By Guancha Observer Network, Liu Chenghui] In late March, a forest fire in the southeastern region of South Korea claimed dozens of lives. However, some South Korean netizens tried to capitalize on this incident and attempted to shift the blame onto China, which led to an emergency denial from the US Forces Korea (USFK).

On April 1st, the website of the "Daily Market News" of South Korea noticed that a South Korean netizen had previously posted a comment on the X platform stating, "If the forest fire is related to Chinese spies or China, USFK can immediately intervene and impose martial law." In response to this statement, the USFK account rarey replied in English: "Do not spread false information."

A South Korean netizen left a message on X saying "if the fire is related to China, the US military can intervene" Daily Market News of South Korea

When questioned by the user whether they had correctly understood Korean, the USFK account responded again emphasizing: "The translation is correct; opinions shape public perception of facts; someone flagged us, so we replied not to spread false information."

"The US military will not comply with South Korean martial law orders, and nothing like this happened last December." The USFK account added. Last December, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol suddenly announced a nationwide emergency martial law order, but it was lifted after only six and a half hours.

The "Daily Market News" reported that it is rare for the official USFK account to respond to individual users' comments in such a way.

As of this writing, the post involving China has been deleted by the user who originally posted it.

As of press time, the posts involving China have been removed, but the replies from the USFK account are still visible.

This large-scale forest fire in South Korea began in the city of Sancheong, Gyeongsangnam-do province on March 21st, and then appeared in the city of Uiseong, Gyeongsangbuk-do province the next day. Under strong winds, the fire quickly spread to several cities including Andong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, and Inje, becoming the largest forest fire on record in South Korea.

According to the South Korean Central Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on March 30th, the main fires in the Gyeongsang provinces that started on March 21st have been completely extinguished, and the main fires in Gyeongsangbuk-do that started on March 22nd were extinguished on March 28th. This forest fire caused 30 deaths, 45 injuries, and affected an area of 48,000 hectares of forestland, setting a historical record in South Korea. Additionally, more than 3,000 residential buildings were destroyed, and 30 national heritage sites and over 2,000 agricultural facilities were damaged.

On March 31st, in the city of Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do province of South Korea, an agricultural industrial park was damaged by the forest fire. Items such as feed inside a factory were still burning, and firefighting operations were ongoing. Visual China

According to Yonhap News Agency, the police in Gyeongbuk Province announced on March 30th that the suspect identified by the South Korean police is a 56-year-old man who is accused of accidentally starting a forest fire while paying respects at a gravesite on a mountain in Uiseong, Gyeongsangbuk-do province on the morning of March 22nd. He violated South Korea's "Forest Protection Law." It is reported that the suspect denied the charges.

Korean forestry researchers said on March 31st that although the large forest fire that raged for more than a week in the southeastern part of the country has largely been extinguished, forestry experts warned that the fire has rapidly degraded the entire ecosystem, and it may take up to 100 years for the ecosystems in the affected areas to fully recover.

This article is an exclusive contribution by the Guancha Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7488583156187071011/

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