South Korea deployed fighter jets on Thursday after two Chinese and four Russian military planes entered its air defense zone, South Korea’s military said.
However, the foreign planes did not violate South Korean territorial airspace, the military said, as they only flew into the country’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), an area where nations may try to control aircraft for security reasons but that is not subject to international laws.
The incident occurred as Beijing and Moscow, traditional allies of North Korea, are seeming to step up their military cooperation, with Washington last month warning that their military ties were “growing and dangerous.”
Chinese and Russian warplanes last approached South Korea’s airspace in June, as they conducted joint air force patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Seoul deployed fighter jets in response to that activity.
Military jets from Moscow and Beijing entered and exited Seoul’s KADIZ in November 2022, prompting Seoul to scramble its fighter jets.
