SOUTH KOREA/NORTH KOREA/JAPAN: FOUR NORTH KOREAN FIGHTER JETS INTERCEPT A U.S. AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE IN INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE

Record ID: 645789

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA/NORTH KOREA/JAPAN: FOUR NORTH KOREAN FIGHTER JETS INTERCEPT A U.S. AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE IN INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE
  • Date: 4th March 2003
  • Summary: (W3) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (MARCH 4, 2003) (REUTERS) SV PROFESSOR LEE CHUNG-MIN, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AT YONSEI UNIVERSITY ENTERING ROOM AND SITTING DOWN MCU (English) PROFESSOR LEE CHUNG-MIN, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AT YONSEI UNIVERSITY SAYING: "I think the impact will be quite negative. Obviously, the Pentagon is not going to blow this out of proportion, but they have said very clearly that this is a very very very serious event. And, for the first time in three decades, North Korea has taken steps to really provoke the U.S." SV PROFESSOR LEE AT DESK MCU (English) PROFESSOR LEE SAYING: "In particular with the inauguration of (South Korean) President Roh (Moo-hyun), and the impending war on Iraq, North Korea apparantly wants to test both Washington and Seoul. They want to decouple Seoul from Washington as much as possible by increasing tensions here on the Peninsula. But they also want to test U.S. resolve -- if the U.S. decides finally to go to war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq."
  • Embargoed: 19th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA/ PYONGYANG AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, NORTH KOREA / TOKYO/KADENA, JAPAN, UNSPECIFIED AIR SPACE
  • Country: Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9BLRFPFLOBQ6O81RGZYJL6UNX
  • Story Text: Tension in South Korea and Japan has risen after four North Korean fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Sea of Japan.
    The U.S. Pentagon said on Monday (March 3) that four North Korean fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Sea of Japan on Sunday (March 2) and came within 50 feet (15 metres) of the big American jet while shadowing it.
    Two advanced MiG-29 fighters and two others believed to be MiG-23s intercepted the sophisticated four-engine RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft 150 miles (240 km) off the coast of North Korea and shadowed the American jet for about 20 minutes, said a Pentagon spokesman.
    The incident came as tension continued to rise on the Korean peninsula over the North's suspected nuclear arms ambitions, and as the United States builds up military forces in the Gulf in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq.
    The encounter -- a whisker away from disaster in the air in one of the world's most militarised regions -- followed repeated assertions by North Korea's state media that U.S.
    RC-135 aircraft had been flying sorties inside its airspace.
    "The repeated intrusion into the territorial air and spying act (by the U.S. spy plane), following the incident on February 24, is a part of U.S. imperialist warmonger's ugly strategies to destroy us by military force. It violently breached our republic's sovereignty and serious violation of an international law," North Korea's news anchor said on February 26.
    North Korea on Saturday accused the United States of stepping up spy flights as a preparation for war as South Korea's new president vowed to work for a swift, peaceful end to the nuclear crisis on the peninsula.
    Pyongyang had earlier complained that a U.S. RC-135 aircraft had been flying repeated sorties inside its airspace.
    A North Korean fighter jet also flew briefly into South Korean airspace last week.
    The RC-135 is an updated spy version of the venerable old Boeing 707 commercial jet and is packed with sophisticated electronic gear. Known by the Pentagon as "Rivet Joint," the aircraft is capable of tracking troop and other military movements on the ground hundreds of miles (kms) away.
    Pyongyang said they showed the United States was preparing for war on the peninsula -- although many Asia analysts fault Washington for neglecting North Korea even as that isolated state makes continuous moves to ratchet up tension.
    North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations. Many analysts say Pyongyang's goal in the four-month-old nuclear impasse is to draw Washington into talks and normalise ties to ensure survival of the impoverished state.
    In 1968, North Koreans seized the spy ship U.S.S. Pueblo in international waters, holding its crew hostage for a year.
    North Korea has taken a series of steps to ratchet up pressure on the United States in the months since Washington's announcement in October that North Korea had admitted to pursuing a covert programme to enrich uranium for weapons.
    In December the North expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors who had been monitoring atomic sites frozen in 1994 under a U.S.
    deal that eased a previous North Korean nuclear crisis.
    In January, North Korea became the first state to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Last month, it announced it was set to restart a reactor suspected of having been used a decade earlier to produce plutonium for bombs.
    Last week, Washington, citing satellite photographs, said North Korean scientists had fired up the reactor and appeared set to reactivate a reprocessing plant -- both at the Yongbyon (pronounced as YOUNG BYEON) complex, 95 km (60 miles) north of the capital Pyongyang.
    In South Korea the consequences of increasesd friction between neighbouring North Korea and the United States is keenly debated.
    A South Korean expert said the incident would negatively affect the future North Korea-U.S. relationship.
    "I think the impact will be quite negative. Obviously, the Pentagon is not going to blow this out of proportion, but they have said very clearly that this is a very very very serious event. And, for the first time in three decades, North Korea has taken steps to really provoke the U.S.," said Professor Lee Chung-min (pronounced as LEE CHEONG-MIN) at Yonsei University.
    Professor Lee explained that North Korea may have intentions behind the incident to test both Washington and new administration of South Korea.
    "In particular with the inauguration of (South Korean) President Roh (Moo-hyun), and the impending war on Iraq, North Korea apparantly wants to test both Washington and Seoul. They want to decouple Seoul from Washington as much as possible by increasing tensions here on the Peninsula. But they also want to test U.S. resolve -- if the U.S. decides finally to go to war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq," said Professor Lee.
    Japanese officials said information was still being gathered on the encounter on Sunday (March 2) but moves to escalate tension in the region was unhelpful.
    Yasuo Fukuda, chief government spokesman told reporters, "Regarding this incident, we are gathering information on the circumstances, and we have not heard the final conclusion.
    But, the U.S. plane has returned safely to Kadena and the important thing is not to escalate the existing tension."
    But on the streets of the South Korean capital people were worried about the incident.
    "The fact, that the North Korean MiG-29 flew after the (U.S. airplane) when it was reconnoitering, is very worrisome because it adds more tensions to the internatonal relations where tensions have already existed," said 64-year-old Lee Kyoung-shik.
    "The incident escalates the tension, but we should handle this situation rationally," said 45-year-old Choi Young-tae.
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