Yangju highway incident

37°51′28″N 126°56′56″E / 37.857722°N 126.948972°E / 37.857722; 126.948972 (Location of the Yangju highway incident)

Yangju highway incident
Victims of Yangju highway incident: Shim Mi-seon (left) and Shin Hyo-sun
Korean name
Hangul	미군 장갑차에 의한 중학생 압사 사건
Hanja	美軍 裝甲車에 依한 中學生 壓死 事件
Revised Romanization	Migun Janggapcha-e Euihan Junghaksaeng Apsa Sageon
McCune–Reischauer	Migun Changgapch'a'e Ŭihan Chunghaksaeng Apsa Sagŏn

The Yangju highway incident, also known as the Yangju training accident or Highway 56 Accident, occurred on June 13, 2002, in Yangju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. A United States Army armored vehicle-launched bridge, returning to base in Uijeongbu on a public road after training maneuvers in the countryside, struck and killed two 14-year-old South Korean schoolgirls, Shin Hyo-sun (Korean: 신효순) and Shim Mi-seon (심미선).

The American soldiers involved were found not guilty of negligent homicide in the court martial, further inflaming anti-American sentiment in South Korea and sparking a series of candlelight vigil protests in protest of their deaths. The memory of the two schoolgirls is commemorated annually in South Korea.^[1]