South Korea Has Run-In With Russian Jet During Its Patrol With China

South Korea claims it fired hundreds of warning shots at a Russian military aircraft after it entered its territorial airspace. The incursion would be the first between the two countries in recent history, NPR informed.

The contact happened Tuesday, as Russia and China were coducting a joint air patrol in the Asia Pacific. South Korea says aircraft from both of those countries entered its air defense identification zone over a chain of disputed islands in the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan).

South Korea says a Russian A-50 command and control aircraft entered the Korea airspace twice, causing the country to fire more than 300 warning shots. Russia claims that its planes were flying over neutral waters, and that the South Korean jets intercepting their planes was a dangerous thing to do.

According to Peter Layton, a former Royal Australian Air Force pilot and analyst at the Griffith Asia Institute, the military encounter was “extraordinary and a very serious matter.”

Japan also claims that the Russian A-50 entered into their airspace, prompting it to send up fighter jets as a counter-measure. The incidents occurred over the two small islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan, Dokdo or Takeshima.

“I assume that one of the reasons was that … they were hoping that the South Koreans and Japanese would launch some of their fighter jets to intercept some the bombers, and so the A-50 could collect intelligence information on the launch of those aircraft, and how that intercept was carried out,” Layton said.

Jonathan B. Miller, a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo, says the move may have been an effort by Russia and China to weaken the U.S.’ network of allies in the Asia Pacific.

“This was done over the Dokdo Takeshima, which was also a disputed territorial claim between Japan and South Korea, who are both U.S. allies,” Miller said.

“So that has made this even more confusing, with South Korea being the one who fired on the Russian jets warning signals, and then Japan lodging protests that South Korea shouldn’t be firing, because it’s Japan’s territory,” Miller said. “That is an important point also, because that shows that if this was an orchestrated move by the Russians and Chinese, it has kind of been done to sort of sow discord between two key U.S. allies.”