South Korea Claims It Fired 100s of Warning Shots at First Ever Joint Russia-China Air Patrol

Warplanes from Russia and China brushed airspace claimed by both South Korea and Japan Tuesday in a rare, dramatic episode that reportedly saw shots fired in what may be the latest instance of Moscow challenging the Pentagon’s global military order.

The South Korean military’s Joint Chief of Staff released a statement claiming that Russian and Chinese military “invaded” the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ), a stretch of international airspace outside South Korea’s territory, and that two Russian military aircraft then “invaded” South Korean territorial airspace over the disputed Liancourt Rocks, known to South Korea as Dokdo and to Japan as Takeshima. In response, South Korea scrambled jets and “took tactical action including dropping flares and firing a warning shot.”

“This is the first time Russian military aircraft have invaded our airspace,” an official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff was cited as saying in the press release.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency provided even more dramatic details, citing one official as saying that South Korean F-15Ks and F-16Ks fighter jets first “fired some 10 rounds of flares and 80 warning shots” after the Russian Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft failed to respond to warnings against its encroachment and then, when it re-entered South Korean airspace shortly after, the defending aircraft took “stronger military actions involving around 10 flares and 280 warning shots.”

The account was entirely denied by Moscow, which has forged closer ties with Beijing and has a history of testing Washington and its allies in regions where tensions were running high.

Seoul: Russia violated our airspace.
Moscow: No we didn’t.
Seoul: We fired 360 warning shots at your aircraft.
Moscow: No you didn’t.

Russia & South Korea not exactly on the same page about this incident.

— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) July 23, 2019

The state-run Tass Russian News Agency cited the Russia Defense Ministry as saying that Chinese H6-K and Russian Tu-95MS bombers were “air patrolling the planned route over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea” in what was their “first joint air patrol by long-range aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region.” It added: “The flights were performed as part of implementing the provisions of the military cooperation plan for 2019 and were not directed against third countries.”

The ministry maintained that “according to flight data, there were no violations of other countries’ airspace” and also dismissed its South Korean counterparts’ reports of warning shots, arguing that “this would have triggered an immediate response” on the part of the Russian pilots. Russia has been involved in numerous buzzing incidents and interceptions in other parts of the world, including near the borders of the U.S-led NATO Western military alliance in Europe, and even off the coast of Alaska.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press briefing that she was “not aware of the specific situation” regarding Tuesday’s aerial event but noted that the word “invaded” should be “used with caution” as China and South Korea are “are friendly neighbors and the situation is not clear yet.”

Backing up South Korea’s allegations of provocative Russian behavior, however, was Japan, which at the same time felt Seoul had no right to come to the defense of the Liancourt Rocks that were claimed by Tokyo as well. The Japanese Defense Ministry said its forces “responded by launching fighters urgently” and issued a detailed report purporting to show the flightpaths of China’s H6-K as well as Russia’s Tu-95MS and the A-50 that Japan too said “invaded” the contested islands.

The rival deployment of South Korean and Japanese jets to protect the same land from an alleged Russian intrusion came amid a bitter falling out that has threatened ties between two close U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region. A South Korean court case ruled last year in favor of compensation for Japan’s use of Koreans as requisitioned workers and comfort women”—considered slave laborers and sex slaves by Seoul—during World War II, practices for which Tokyo has said it already provided compensation through past agreements.

As this dispute boiled over into a trade spat that further divided South Korea and Japan, top U.S. rivals Russia and China have only grown closer over the past year. The debut of their joint drill over a region already brimming with sensitive security issues may represent a new stage in their partnership, which has also played out in opposition of U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Moscow and Beijing’s common interests weren’t limited to the Asia-Pacific, where they both oppose the Pentagon’s unparalleled, expanding infrastructure and its deployment of advanced defense systems. China and Russia were also signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal forged by the U.S. and Iran, as well as the European Union, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The diplomat landmark promised Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program, now on the verge of collapse after President Donald Trump abandoned it last year and left the remaining parties struggling to normalize trade ties with Iran.

Source: Newsweek