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View Full Version : South Korea and Japan challenge China's New Defense Zone



Gauthier
11-28-2013, 04:23 PM
The Wall Street Journal
Nov. 28, 2013 4:38 a.m. ET

SEOUL—South Korea and Japan said they have sent military planes into China's new air-defense zone without notifying Beijing and would send others, stepping up opposition to China's moves to assert control of regional airspace.

South Korea also asked China at a meeting on Thursday to change the boundaries of the new Air Defense Identification Zone to eliminate overlap with South Korea's own ADIZ, a request China rejected. Seoul then said it may expand its own zone into areas claimed by China.

The moves come after the U.S. flew two B-52 bombers uncontested through Beijing's newly proclaimed air-defense zone Monday.

Seoul's defense ministry said it sent a military jet on Tuesday to the air space around a contested submerged rock that lies inside China's air defense zone. The ministry added it will continue to send aircraft to the area.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry acknowledged the flight.

"In according with the announcement of aircraft identification rules of the East China Sea, China identifies any aircraft within the air-defense zone, so China noted the relevant situation you have mentioned," Qin Gang said when asked about the South Korean flight at a regular briefing.

In Tokyo, a spokesman at the Japan Coast Guard said Thursday it has continued its flights in the area without giving advanced notice to Beijing, and has not encountered any resistance. The spokesman declined to say how often the patrols were being conducted.

"After China claimed an air self-defense zone, we have conducted regular surveillance activities," Japan's Chief Government Spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Thursday. "We have no intention to stop our activities out of consideration for China."

China's foreign ministry spokesman did not comment specifically on the Japanese flights.

At the meeting in Seoul on Thursday, South Korean Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo protested to a visiting senior Chinese military official about the overlap between the Korean ADIZ and the newly-declared area by Beijing and requested that China change the demarcation to avoid the overlap, according to ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.

Wang Guanzhong, the visiting deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, rejected the request, Mr. Kim said.

Mr. Baek then told Mr. Wang that Seoul is reviewing an expansion of its own zone into areas declared by the Chinese, according to Mr. Kim. The spokesman declined to provide the Chinese response during the meeting, which was closed to the press.

Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday the areas considered for expansion were under review and declined to specify whether they included the area around the submerged Socotra Rock, which South Korea calls Ieodo and China calls Suyan.

South Korea has built a marine research station on the rock, which is also claimed by China.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304017204579225371188431160

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