South Korean fighter jets yesterday fired hundreds of warning shots and Japan complained to Moscow after a Russian military aircraft entered airspace claimed by both Seoul and Tokyo.
Seoul said three Russian military planes — two Tu-95 bombers and one A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft — entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone off its east coast before the A-50 intruded in South Korean airspace.
Seoul defense officials said the Russian reconnaissance aircraft left the area three minutes later, but later returned and entered its airspace again for four minutes.
Photo: Reuters / Joint Staff Office of the Japanese Ministry of Defense
The officials said they responded by scrambling F-15K and KF-16 jets, which first issued warnings and fired flares.
They fired 80 warning shots at the plane during the first breach and 280 rounds during the second, a military official said.
At one point, the South Korean and Russian warplanes were just 1km apart, the official added.
“We are assessing this incident in a very grave manner and will take a much tougher measure if it happens again,” National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong said, according to a presidential Blue House spokeswoman.
Japan complained to both Moscow and Seoul over the incursion.
“We learned that Russian military planes flying over the Sea of Japan this morning twice violated our airspace near Takeshima,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular press conference.
“Based on this knowledge, we made strong protests,” he said.
Suga, who said Japan also scrambled military jets, added that South Korea’s response was “extremely regrettable.”
However, the Blue House said the disputed islets were an “integral part” of South Korean territory “historically, geographically and under international law.”
Russia denied any breaches, saying that Seoul’s complaint was based on an “arbitrarily established” air defense identification zone that Moscow did not recognize.
“It was not the first time that South Korean pilots tried to unsuccessfully interfere with the flights of the Russian aviation forces above the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“Such ‘zones’ are recognized by neither international law nor Russia,” it said, adding that Moscow had repeatedly informed Seoul about it.
Russia later released a separate statement, saying Russian and Chinese long-range planes had staged a “first joint patrol mission in the Asia-Pacific region” to “deepen and develop Russian-Chinese relations.”
“Both countries acted in strict accordance with international law,” the ministry said in the statement, adding that the event was “not aimed against third countries.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said that South Korea’s air defense identification zone is not a territorial airspace and all countries enjoy freedom of movement there.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS