South Korean fighter jets fired hundreds of warning shots at a Russian military aircraft on Tuesday after it twice violated the country’s airspace, defense officials said.
In a statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft twice violated South Korean airspace off the country’s eastern coast on Tuesday morning.
It was the first time a Russian military aircraft had violated South Korean airspace, an official at the South Korean Ministry of National Defence said in Seoul.
Russia’s defence ministry denied that its strategic bombers had violated South Korean airspace, the RIA news agency reported.
The South Korean military said the Russian A-50 flew above islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan, first at 9.09 a.m. local time and then again at 9.33 a.m., each time for just a matter of minutes.
The two, small disputed islands are known to the Koreans as Dokdo and to the Japanese as Takeshima. They’re situated about halfway between both countries.
In response, South Korea deployed F-15F and KF-16 fighter jets, the statement said, and fired 360 warning shots ahead of the Russian aircraft, 80 during the first violation and 280 during the second. The shots were fired using 20mm weapon, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The South Korean military said they also sent out 30 warnings to the Russian plane but received no response. The A-50 is an unarmed AWACS plane, standing for Airborne Warning and Control System, designed for tracking and observation.
It is the first time a foreign country has violated South Korean airspace, according to the ministry.
Chung Eui-yong, director of South Korea’s National Security Office, said that he had sent a “strong” message of complaint to the Russian authorities over the incident.
“We are taking this situation very seriously, and if this kind of action is repeated, we will take even stronger measures,” Chung said.