A military truck belonging to the United States army in South Korea has run over and killed a Korean woman, police said on Wednesday.

The vehicle, driven by a South Korean national, killed a 45-year-old woman near the city of Inchon.

Anti-US sentiment is running high in Seoul

Police said the woman had a hearing impairment, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

The accident comes at a time of acute sensitivities over the presence of 37,000 US troops in South Korea, stationed there to counter the threat from the Stalinist North.

Activists said the accident was unlikely to spark complaints.

There have been regular protests against the laws governing their presence since a US court martial last year acquitted two US soldiers over another road accident.

In that incident, two teenage South Korean girls were killed by a US armoured vehicle. The vehicle's driver and navigator were found not guilty of negligent homicide.

Anger over the ruling sparked a wave of anti-US protests and calls for the Status of Forces Agreement which governs the US presence to be renegotiated.

There have also been regular pro-US rallies.

The demonstrations have coincided with mounting tension on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's nuclear threat.