North Korean aircraft flew to border after firing SRBMs, prompting response from South

North Korea

Published: 07 Oct. 2022, 12:26 Updated: 07 Oct. 2022, 14:35

North Korean aircraft flew to border after firing SRBMs, prompting response from South

One of the four South Korean Air Force F-15K Slam Eagles and four U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons drop two Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided bombs during a drill in the early hours of Wednesday, in response to North Korea's intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) launch on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Within hours of firing two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) from Pyongyang into the East Sea on Thursday, North Korea flew twelve jets and bombers to the border, prompting the South Korean military to respond with some 30 jets in the air, according to the South Korean military.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed that North Korea flew eight fighter jets and four bombers toward the South Korean border around 2 p.m. Thursday, close enough to prompt its response.

“The North Korean planes appeared to be doing an air-to-surface drill for about an hour, from Hwanghae Province in the direction of Hwangju,” according to the JCS.

While the aircrafts did not engage in any clash, the rapid escalation of tensions in the airspace between the two Koreas was highly unusual.

The last time something similar happened was on Oct. 22, 2012, when North Korea’s four MiG-29 fighter jets flew close to the border, four days after a group of defectors from the North in South Korea flew anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. South Korean military planes were dispatched toward the border in response.

Some experts see the recent move by Pyongyang as a desperate brinkmanship.

“North Korean provocations using air force power are a very new phenomenon and are intended to create a wider spectrum of tensions,” said Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University. “By launching various types of missiles from various locations and mobilizing its air force as well, North Korea’s intention is to make it difficult for South Korea, the United States and Japan to prepare for provocations from the North together.”

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington were engaged in a missile defense drill in the East Sea when North Korea floated its jets and bombers Thursday afternoon.

Park added that because the North Korean air force is “absolutely inferior” to those of South Korea and the United States, the fact that Pyongyang chose to mobilize even its air force could be interpreted as a message that “it will go all out in using its military resources” in escalating tensions in the region.

Before its series of provocations on Thursday, North Korea had also fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on Tuesday and another SRBM three days before that.

In response to the IRBM test, South Korea and the United States each launched two U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) surface-to-surface missiles in the early hours of Wednesday, which accurately hit mock targets and demonstrated the allies’ capability to deter further provocations, according to the JCS.

“The latest escalations by Pyongyang are attempts to worsen the security crisis on the Korean Peninsula and neutralize the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's hardline policy toward North Korea,” said Lim Eul-chul, professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. “Pyongyang is sending a signal that it is willing to compete head-to-head against U.S. strategic assets.”

BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO, LEE CHUL-JAE, PARK HYUN-JU AND ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]