Following the incursion of two Chinese and four Russian military aircraft into its air defense zone, South Korea’s military reported on Thursday that it had sent out fighter fighters.
The foreign aircraft, however, did not breach South Korean territorial airspace, according to the military, since they were limited to the nation’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is ungoverned by international law but may be controlled by governments for security purposes.
The incident occurred as Beijing and Moscow, traditional allies of North Korea, are seeming to step up their military cooperation, with Washington last month warning that their military ties were “growing and dangerous.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea said in a statement that the aircraft entered the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) off the country’s east coast between 11:53 a.m. (0253 GMT/UTC) and 12:10 p.m., after which it exited the area.
The planes were recognized by the South Korean military “before they entered KADIZ, and air force fighter jets were deployed to take tactical measures in preparation for contingencies,” the statement stated.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning described the incident as “a routine flight activity.”
The air defense zone occupies an area larger than South Korea’s airspace.
Seoul also had to scramble its fighter fighters as a result of Russian and Chinese military aircraft entering and leaving the KADIZ in November of last year.
Beijing claims that the air defense zone is not territorial airspace and that all aircraft should be allowed to fly there freely, whereas Moscow does not recognize the zone.
Generally speaking, territorial airspace refers to the area above a nation’s borders that is 12 nautical miles (22 km) from the coast.
