The military has grounded all Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), an advanced unmanned spy plane newly introduced to South Korea, while an investigation is conducted, a military spokeswoman said.

"It is not the first time this has happened. We are investigating," the spokeswoman told AFP.

The crash ocurred late Thursday at Dongducheon, about 40 kilometersmiles) north of Seoul and close to the border with communist North Korea.

A planned demonstration flight of a Shadow 200 UAV slated for next week has been cancelled.

The new spy plane, operational during the US-led war in Iraq, was introduced to South Korea last month. It is designed to fly for up to five hours.

The deployment of the surveillance planes in South Korea is part of an 11 billion dollar US defense build-up plan against North Korea.

Some 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended in a fragile armistice, rather than a peace treaty.

WAR.WIRE