An unprecedented incident happened above a small island near South Korea and Japan on Tuesday, CNN reported.
Warplanes from Russia, China, South Korea and Japan clashed and raised concerns about a potential escalation of the situation. Officials from the four countries came out with statements about the things that happened.
South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff said that they fired more than 300 warning shots at a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft early on Tuesday after it had twice violated the country’s airspace. They noted that an incident like this between the two countries happened for the first time.
On the other hand, Russian officials instantly denied the claims by South Korea saying that the military jets of South Korea dangerously intercepted two of its bombers during a planned flight over neutral waters.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense backed up the accusations made by South Korea as they said that the Russian military aircraft flew over the islands and that it was later joined by two Chinese H-6 bombers.
Some analysts who know the relations between the countries claim that Russia may provoke the incident in order to draw out Japanese and South Korean response for the purpose of gathering military intelligence, as Peter Layton who is a former Royal Australian Air Force pilot and analyst at the Griffith Asia Institute said:
“This mission will have given them a comprehensive map of the South Korean national air defense system.’’
The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday, in which they said that its aircraft had taken part in a joint patrol with Chinese long-range aircraft and said that they were conducting the first joint air patrol using long-range aircraft in the Asian-Pacific region, adding that the patrol was carried out in order to deepen and develop Russian-Chinese relations and was not aimed against third countries.
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