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Mon 3 Mar, 2003 03:22 pm
WASHINGTON - North Korean fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Sea of Japan and one used its radar in a manner that indicated it might attack, U.S. officials said Monday.
Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman, said it was the first such incident since August 1969 when a North Korean plane shot down a U.S. EC-121 surveillance plane, killing 31 Americans.
The latest incident happened Sunday morning, Korean time, and there was no hostile fire, Davis said.
Four North Korean planes "shadowed" the American plane over international waters for about 20 minutes before breaking off, he said
while not a good omen for N.Korea/USA relations i have to wonder what would have been the resonse if a N.Korean spy plane was flying 150 miles off shore from Los Angeles? or is that different?
I have the vague impression that games with targeting radars used to be fairly common around the Bering Straits. Offhand, I don't think this is terribly significant by itself.
If a North Korean plane was flying 150 miles off the coast of the US we'd treat it just like we did Soviet planes for decades.
150 miles is WELL outside of any territorial claims.
It would be no wonder if later it is revealed that Iraqi regime paid to Kim for his provocations aimed to distract the U.S. attention from Iraq. I do not claim that this is what really happens, but it seems to me quite probable.
fishin' are you saying we would ignore it?
At 150 miles out? We'd monitor the flight by long range radar, just as we did with the Soviets. The standard NORAD procedure was to launch interceptors when the Soviets were at the same distance from the territorial water marker as the interceptors were. Any time they got within 5 miles of the territorial water line their planes were "escorted". NORAD interceptors were not supposed to fly any farther than 10 miles outside the territorial water line on any escort flight.
Such fun, these games, no?
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