Newsday (New York, NY) March 04, 2003
Dangerous Game;
N. Korea jets intercept, but don't fire on U.S. spy plane
By Craig Gordon. WASHINGTON BUREAU;
William Douglas of the Washington bureau contributed to this story.
Washington - Four North Korean fighter jets intercepted a U.S. spy plane over the Sea of Japan during the weekend, and at least one locked on to the American plane with target-seeking radar but did not fire, the Pentagon said yesterday.
North Korean planes at one point came within 50 feet of the unarmed RC-135S reconnaissance plane, which later returned to Kadena Air Base in Japan without incident, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
The intercept - the first of a U.S. plane by North Korea since 1969 - is the latest in a series of defiant acts by the Pyongyang government that appear designed to prompt the Bush administration to engage in direct talks about North Korea's nuclear program.
That dispute deepened last week when North Korea restarted a nuclear reactor that could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
A senior State Department official called the North Korean intercept "dumb and dangerous" but downplayed its impact on the nuclear standoff. "It just shows they are trying to provoke rather than resolve," the official said.
An administration official said the incident involved one U.S. RC-135S reconnaisance plane, which he said was intercepted about 100 miles off the coast of North Korea by four North Korean jets. "It was clearly in international waters," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The North Korean jets approached to within 300 to 400 feet of the U.S. aircraft and locked on to it with electronic targeting equipment, the official said. The jets turned off the targeting equipment and got to within 50 feet of the U.S. plane before peeling off, he said.
A White House official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials were consulting with South Korea and other U.S. allies in the region on "the most appropriate manner" to lodge a protest. "This is the kind of provocative action that serves only to isolate North Korea from the rest of the international community," the official said.
The four North Korean planes - two Russian-made MiG29 fighters and two that appeared to be MiG23s - intercepted the Air Force plane at 8:48 p.m. New York time Saturday, Davis said. The U.S. plane was on a surveillance mission over the Sea of Japan, about 150 miles off North Korea, he added.
The North Korean planes "shadowed" the American plane for about 20 minutes before breaking off. At one point, at least one of the MiGs engaged its fire-control radar sensors that can detect a possible target, but did not fire, Davis said. He said he did not know whether there was any communication between the two nations' crews.
North Korea complained about the spy flights before the incidents on Saturday, charging that U.S. RC-135S planes had illegally flown over its territorial waters in recent weeks and that the United States and South Korea were using military exercises as a guise to start a war on the Korean Peninsula.
Davis said the intercepted mission was a routine one over international waters. The RC-135S, a modified Boeing 707, has extensive electronic receivers and large windows in the fuselage for long-range photography. The United States regularly flies U-2 spy planes to monitor the North's nuclear facilities.
The intercept came amid growing international worries about North Korea's apparent nuclear ambitions and provocative behavior. Besides restarting the nuclear reactor, North Korea also last week fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan.
In the August 1969 incident, a North Korean plane shot down a U.S. EC-121 surveillance plane, killing 31 Americans.
William Douglas of the Washington bureau contributed to this story.
Tense Encounter
Two North Korean MiG-29s and two planes believed to be MiG-23s intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane 150 miles off the North Korean coast over the Sea of Japan.
MiG-23 Flogger
Crew: 1
Role: Interceptor / fighter
Top Speed: Mach 2.35 (1551 mph)
Range: 970 miles
Armament: 23-mm cannon
MiG-29 Fulcrum
Crew: 1
Role: All-weather fighter / attack plane
Top Speed: Mach 2.3 (1518 mph)
Range: 900 miles
Armamant: mix of missles; 30-mm cannon
RC-135S
Crew: 5
Role: Reconnaissance
Top Speed: Mach 0.6 (about 500 mph)
Range: 3,900 miles
Armament: None
Based in: Kadena, Japan
SOURCE: GlobalSecurity.org, U.S. Air Force
GRAPHIC: Newsday Chart / Gustavo Pabon - Tense Encounter (see end of text)
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
