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.
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