02 February 2016•Update: 02 February 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea warned away a pair of Chinese military aircraft over the weekend, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Tuesday.
The planes flew close to Jeju Island Sunday before retreating -- South Korea’s military took “necessary surveillance and tactical measures”, according to a JCS spokesperson.
The South’s air defense identification zone overlaps with that of China, adding further tension to an incident that came as Seoul and Beijing have failed to agree on an appropriate response to North Korea’s claimed hydrogen bomb test at the start of the year.
Ties between South Korea and China had blossomed in recent years under the influence of high-profile political meetings and booming bilateral trade.
But with Beijing declaring its reluctance to impose heavy sanctions on its traditional ally North Korea, that relationship has come under strain.
China did appear to be taking some action Tuesday, as a report from Japan’s Kyodo News claimed that Beijing’s delegate to stalled six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea had made an unexpected trip to the reclusive state’s capital Pyongyang.
Seoul has been leaning in the last few weeks towards its own military partnership with the United States.
Statements out of the South’s defense ministry and ruling party suggest that local momentum has been gathering in favor of deploying a U.S. missile defense system known as THAAD, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.
Beijing has repeatedly expressed its opposition to such a move, suggesting that it would be a pretext for Washington to spy on China.
Meanwhile, Russia’s ambassador to Seoul told reporters Tuesday that the deployment of THAAD in South Korea would “not be helpful to peace and security in Northeast Asia nor to the resolution of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.”
Alexander Timonin said that Russia was “paying close attention to the increased contacts over the issue between relevant organizations of the U.S. and [South Korea]”.
