Photo courtesy of Anadolu
South Korea sent fighter jets into the air after Russian military aircraft entered its air defense identification zone near the country’s eastern coast, the military said Wednesday.
The Russian planes crossed into the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone near the Dokdo islets and Ulleung Island on Tuesday before later departing, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
South Korean forces detected the aircraft before they entered the zone and deployed Air Force fighters as a precaution, the military said.
The Russian aircraft did not cross into South Korea’s territorial airspace.
Unlike sovereign airspace, an air defense identification zone is a broader area where foreign aircraft are expected to identify themselves to reduce the risk of unintended encounters.
Russia has repeatedly maintained that its military flights comply with international rules on the use of airspace, according to state news agency TASS.
The incident came less than two months after nearly 10 Chinese and Russian military aircraft briefly entered South Korea’s air defense zone over eastern and southern waters in late June.
Seoul later protested those entries to Moscow and Beijing, adding to recurring friction over foreign military flights around the Korean Peninsula.