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Sunday, October 29, 2000

N. Korea demands apology
after U.S. planes cross border

By Jeremy Kirk
Seoul bureau chief

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — North Korea demanded an apology after two U.S. fighter planes flew into the communist country’s airspace Thursday.

Around 11:22 a.m., the fighters flew just north of Panmunjom before turning around, according to North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency web site.

"The infiltration of fighters by the U.S. imperialists into our side’s territorial airspace is a byproduct of the deliberate and premeditated maneuver by the warmongers of the U.S. military to intensify and aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula, which had been favorably developing day by day," the Korean Central News Agency, the country’s primary media outlet, said on Thursday.

U.S. Forces Korea acknowledged the flyover incident, saying it was a mistake, but USFK has not said how long the planes were over North Korea, what types of planes they were, or whether the planes were armed.

Lt. Col. Thomas E. Nickerson of 8th Army public affairs said Saturday that details will be released after an investigation is completed.

The U.N. Command is calling for a Military Armistice Commission meeting at Panmunjom to discuss the flyover and several North Korean border crossings in recent weeks.

It’s not known if North Korea fired on the planes. According to KCNA, soldiers with the "socialist fatherland instantly took a self-defensive measure, (and) the flustered enemy fighters hastily fled."

Since Wednesday, Kunsan and Osan air bases, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, have been engaged in Foal Eagle, the biggest annual exercise in the area. Navy fighters from the USS Kitty Hawk on Thursday were practicing on inland training ranges.

The exercise tests the readiness of U.S. and South Korea forces in case of a North Korean attack. The exercise runs through Nov. 3.

The flyover isn’t the first time U.S. pilots have had trouble staying on the south side of the border. In December 1994, a OH-58A-plus Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter went down after it drifted over the eastern part of the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.