Russia has accused South Korea of “hooliganism in the air”
behind the visit by John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, to Seoul this week was that it might help patch up a row between South Korea and another close American ally, Japan. The rift, with its roots in colonial history and wartime animosity, has brought trade sanctions from Japan.
The details are disputed. South Korea said that Russian and Chinese planes had penetrated its self-declared Korean Air Defence Identification Zone , an area around its borders where it requires foreign planes to notify it of entry. A Russian spy plane then twice intruded into South Korean airspace, prompting the air force to scramble jets. Russia denied the incursion, and that shots had been fired. But it accused South Korea of “hooliganism in the air” for harassing its aircraft.
The third worry is of an accident or misunderstanding. For two countries that have long been at peace, Japan and South Korea keep their fighter pilots busy. In the 12 months that ended this March Japan scrambled its jets 999 times in response to aerial incursions—two-thirds of them by China over the Senkakus, the rest by Russia over yet more disputed islands to the north of Japan.
America must hope the incident will remind South Korea and Japan that the security threat to each comes not from the other but from North Korea and an assertive China, further encouraged by its ever closer ties with Russia; and that in response South Korea and Japan should be shoulder to shoulder, not eyeball to eyeball.
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