North Korea Accuses U.S. Spy Plane of Intruding Into Its Territory
North Korea’s air force on June 16 accused a U.S. reconnaissance plane of intruding into its territorial waters to spy on strategic targets. The North’s Air Force Command said that a U.S. RC-135 plane being refueled in the air had spied on strategic targets for hours after flying over its waters off the northeast coast.
”The ceaseless illegal intrusions of their strategic reconnaissance planes on spy missions have created an imminent danger of military clash in the sky above those waters,” it warned in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It was the North’s second warning in a week against alleged U.S. spy plane intrusions.
On June 11, the air force threatened to “punish” U.S. spy flights, recalling the fate of a U.S. Navy plane it shot down in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) in 1969.
Another U.S.-North Korean incident occurred when North Korea fired missiles at an SR-71 spy plane in August 1981. The jet was undamaged.
The warning comes amid jitters over the Stalinist country’s preparations for a long-range missile test.
Officials here and in Washington confirmed earlier this week that North Korea appeared to be preparing to launch an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.
North Korea is believed to be developing the missile for a range of up to 10,000 kilometers.
It shocked the world in August 1998 by firing a long-range Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, claiming it was a satellite launch.
