Updated at 5.29pm:
Two US
soldiers appeared before South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday for
questioning over an accident in which two schoolgirls were crushed to
death by an armoured vehicle, a South Korean official said.
The US army has charged Sergeant Mark Walker and Sergeant Fernando Nino
of the 2nd Infantry division with negligent homicide in the deaths of the
13-year-old students.
''(South
Korean) prosecutors investigated them over the accident for about 40
minutes in the afternoon,'' said an official at Seoul District Prosecutors
Office in Uijongbu.
The prosecutors summoned the pair two days ago, but the Americans at
first refused to appear, fearing for their safety following local protests
over the accident.
After completing their investigation, South Korean authorities were
expected to decide whether to ask the United States to give jurisdiction
over the two soldiers to a local court.
Under a bilateral treaty, South Korea can exercise or waive the right
to prosecute cases involving US military personnel on its territory.
The prosecution official declined to give details of the investigation,
and said no date for a trial had been set.
The June 13 accident in a village near Uijongbu, north of the capital,
prompted apologies from United States Forces Korea (USFK) commanders and
anti-US protests by South Koreans who demanded the soldiers be handed over
to local police.
The United States keeps 37,000 troops in South Korea, a force intended
to deter a repeat of the 1950 invasion by North Korea which sparked the
three-year Korean War.
But pollution, noise and traffic from the American bases and occasional
crimes by US troops have been a source of friction with nearby
communities.
South Korean political groups, and North Korea, have seized upon the
disputes to press for a US troop
withdrawal
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