Warning Shots by South Korea as Russia, China Launch Patrol
The governments in Seoul and Tokyo issued protests, while Russia said its planes were operating in international airspace.
(Bloomberg) -- South Korean warplanes fired hundreds of warning shots, accusing a Russian reconnaissance plane of violating its airspace as China and Russia flew nuclear-capable bombers nearby in their first-ever joint air patrol.
The governments in Seoul and Tokyo issued protests, while Russia said its planes were operating in international airspace. The tensions played out as U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is visiting allies in the region, scheduled to hold talks in Seoul Wednesday after a visit to Japan Tuesday.
South Korea said the episode was the first violation of its airspace by a foreign military plane since the 1950-53 Korean war. The Defense Ministry said the Russian and Chinese bombers entered its “air-defense identification zone and approached our airspace and flew for a long time in a sensitive area.”
The Russian A-50 early-warning jet entered Korean airspace twice over the easternmost island Dokdo, the Defense Ministry in Seoul said. The South Korean military fired flares and about 360 warning shots a kilometer in front of the Russian plane. The Russian plane entered the airspace over the island, which is claimed by both South Korea and Japan but administered by Seoul, twice while the bombers were flying nearby, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed presence of an A-50 in a later statement. Earlier, the nation’s ministry said that the strategic bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea to “strengthen global strategic stability” and didn’t violate foreign airspace during the patrol. South Korea calls the waters there the East Sea.
The ministry said no warning shots were fired but accused the South Korean pilots of flying too close to its aircraft in “unprofessional maneuvers.”
“If the Russian pilots felt there was a security threat, they would have responded,” the ministry said.
Japan also lodged protests over the incident to both Russia and South Korea. The islands are known as Takeshima in Japanese.
South Korea summoned Russian and Chinese envoys over the incident. Korea “could take much stronger measures” than warning shots if the incursion is repeated, South Korea’s National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong told his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, according to President Moon Jae-in’s spokeswoman.
“Mutual violations of these air-defense zones are demonstrative to show that they aren’t recognized and these happen hundreds of times a year,” said Vasily Kashin, a defense expert at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. “The incursion by the A-50 into Korean airspace, if it happened, is a regrettable technical error.” He said the surveillance aircraft likely accompanied the bombers to record the reaction of air-defense systems in the region.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stepan Kravchenko in Moscow at skravchenko@bloomberg.net;Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net;Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Hari Govind
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