South Korean air force jets fired 360 rounds of warning shots Tuesday after a Russian military plane twice violated South Korea's airspace off the country's east coast, Seoul officials said in an announcement that was quickly disputed by Russia. South Korea said three Russian military planes
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean air force jets fired 360 rounds of warning shots Tuesday after a Russian military plane twice violated South Korea's airspace off the country's east coast, Seoul officials said in an announcement that was quickly disputed by Russia.
Seoul defense officials said the Russian reconnaissance aircraft left the area three minutes later but later returned and violated South Korean airspace again for four minutes. The officials said the South Korean fighter jets then fired 10 flares and 280 rounds from machine guns as warning shots. Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that its planes did not enter South Korean airspace. It also said South Korean fighter jets didn't fire any warning shots, though it said they flew near the Russian planes in what it called"unprofessional maneuvers" and posed a threat.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Russian military analyst, told The Associated Press he believed the incursion could have been a navigation mistake. He also suggested the incident would not have serious consequences because"South Korea right now is not very interested in pressing this into a kind of long-term worsening of relations."
Japan, which claims ownership over the islets, protested to South Korea for firing warning shots over Japanese airspace. South Korea later countered that it cannot accept the Japanese statement, repeating that the islets are South Korean territory. Japan also protested to Russia for allegedly violating Japanese airspace.
Before their reported joint flights with the Russian planes, the Chinese warplanes entered South Korea's air defense identification zone off its southwest coast earlier Tuesday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said. Seoul says Chinese planes have occasionally entered South Korea's air defense identification zone in recent years.
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