According to authorities, South Korea’s armed forces have issued warning shots on at least one Russian military aircraft that has injured the airspace of the East Asian country.
The Russian machine had penetrated into the airspace of South Korea off the east coast near the rock island chain Dokdo this morning (local time), said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Seoul. According to South Korean media, it was a Russian bomber.
The South Korean Air Force had launched in response to the incident its own fighter jets, which would have fired the warning shots, the spokesman said. Further details are unclear.
The military machine, which had violated the airspace, had previously crossed, among other Russian fighter aircraft without notice, the air traffic control zone of South Korea, it said. Even Chinese military aircraft have penetrated into this zone. Whether it was a joint maneuver of the Russian and Chinese forces is unclear.
South Korea had declared in 2013 to expand its own „Air Defense Identification Zone“ (ADIZ) to the south. Background was then the dispute over territorial claims in the East China Sea. Since then, there have been frequent violations of the zone by Russian and Chinese planes.
