South Korea summons Russian officials over airspace violation

SEOUL: South Korea has summoned Russian embassy officials over violation of its air defense territory and expressed regrets about the incursion.

South Korea’s defense ministry summoned on Saturday Andrey Falileev, Russian military envoy to Seoul, to protest the unauthorized entry of two Russian military aircraft into the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) north of the island of Ulleungdo a day earlier.

“Russian military planes’ KADIZ entry will not help efforts to stabilize the Korean Peninsula as well as Northeast Asia,” the ministry said. “Since there is also a possibility of mid-air collision, we request Russia to recognize the seriousness of this issue and look for measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.”

The South Korean foreign ministry also summoned Maxim Volkov, a senior diplomat at the Russian Embassy, and “expressed regrets and urged the incident not to happen again.”

Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday that two Russian TU-95 bombers escorted by Su-35 fighter jets flew over the international waters of the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean.

The Russian military said they were escorted by South Korean F-15 and F-16 fighter jets and Japanese F-2A war planes “on some stages of the route.”

An official with the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian aircraft had flown into the South’s air defense territory several times this year but it is the first time that they re-entered four times in a single day.