Flypast of Chinese jet fighter Chengdu J-20 during the opening of Airshow China in Zhuhai. [Wikipedia user Alert5]
Chinese warplanes violated an air defense zone claimed by Seoul before flying near Japan, prompting a squadron of South Korean jet fighters to scramble, military authorities said Monday.
The standoff off the southern island of Jeju began after two bombers, two fighter jets and a reconnaissance plane from China flew into the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) at 10:10 am (0110 GMT), the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
When South Korean jet fighters made an emergency sortie, the Chinese side claimed through a hotline that its planes would not intrude into South Korea's territorial airspace during their routine exercise, JCS officials said.
The operation followed President Moon Jae-in's fence-mending visit to Beijing last week that included a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders agreed on a new start in relations hurt by a diplomatic dispute over a U.S. missile shield.
JCS officials said the Chinese planes flew through a disputed area near a submerged rock, known as Ieodo in South Korea and Suyan Rock in China, for a strategic flight toward Japan.
The rock lies within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of the two countries. It has been the subject of a territorial row between Beijing and Seoul, though South Korea effectively controls it by building a research station and a helipad in 2003.
Similar flights by Chinese planes have been reported in the past. In January, a dozen Chinese military planes violated the KADIZ which overlaps air defense zones designated by China and Japan. Unauthorized flights could spark a conflict, but Chinese planes have made strategic flights through the area in an apparent attempt to strengthen Beijing's territorial claim.
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