Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters). During regular training, two Chinese warplanes and seven Russians landed in South Korea’s air defense identification zone.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that Russian and Chinese planes entered the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone in the northeast for a period of time, before leaving.

As a precautionary measure, the JCS sent fighter jets as well as air refuelling tanksers to be ready for any contingencies.

Responding to questions about whether its planes were conducting routine drills, China’s military claimed that it was.

JCS stated in a statement that “we assess the situation to be joint Chinese/Russian military exercise but further analysis is required.”

In recent years, Russian and Chinese warplanes frequently entered the zone amid conflicts over Air Defence Identification Zones.

An ADIZ (as opposed to airspace) is an area that countries can unilaterally request foreign aircraft make special identifications. It does not have international law.

Moscow doesn’t recognize KADIZ. Beijing, however, said that the region isn’t territorial airspace so all countries should be able to move freely there.

When Russian warplanes entered South Korean airspace, they fired hundreds of warning shots at them. This was in 2019 during the joint air patrol between China and South Korea.

South Korea and Japan scrambled planes to intercept the probe at that time and accused Russia and China violating their airspace. Moscow and Beijing refuted it.