North Korea said it mobilized aircraft to fight, sending a U.S. surveillance plane that crossed into its exclusive economic zone fleeing back to base in South Korea, according to state media.
Kim Yo-Jong the North Korean dictator’s powerful sister, issued a rare second warning Monday evening pledging “shocking” consequences for any U.S. aircraft that intrudes on its “inviolable airspace” after sending an initial warning that morning, according to a statement in state-run media outlet KCNA. A second alleged incursion prompted North Korea’s military to scramble warplanes in preparation to engage the American aircraft, causing it to retreat, Kim Yo-Jong said in the statement.
The Pentagon and U.S. Forces Korea did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff denied the U.S. flew reconnaissance aircraft into North Korean airspace, The Associated Press reported. Seoul and Washington had been coordinating on routine surveillance activities, a spokesperson said. (RELATED: ‘Smash The Enemies’: North Korea Claims Missile Launches Were Practice For A South Korean Invasion)
In the statement, Kim accused the U.S. of escalating spying efforts on Pyongyang.
North Korean forces detected the latest incursion at 8:50 a.m., 200 nautical miles from the coast in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), where it claims control of natural resources under international law, according to the statement.
The intrusion is “clearly a grave encroachment upon the sovereignty and security of the DPRK,” Kim said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name. Airspace above North Korea’s claimed economic zone is “not a theater for U.S. military exercises,” she added.
“A shocking incident would occur in the long run in the 20-40 kilometer section in which the U.S. spy planes habitually intrude into the sky above the economic water zone” of North Korea, she threatened.
PANMUNJOM, SOUTH KOREA – FEBRUARY 07: A North Korean guard post is seen from an South Korea’s observation post inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on February 07, 2023 in Panmunjom, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Earlier that day, at about 5 a.m., the North Korean military chased off a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane allegedly surveilling the DPRK’s eastern coast while flying above North Korea’s EEZ, Kim said.
In December, South Korean warplanes mobilized in response to North Korean drones intruding on their airspace, with one defending fighter jet reportedly crashing during the operation. One of the drones allegedly reached the airspace over the capital, and it was not clear whether the vehicles carried weapons.
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