Seoul, July 23: South Korean senior security advisor has on Tuesday lodged a strong protest with Moscow after its Russian military fighter jet breached South Korea’s airspace, said Seoul’s presidential office, adding it will soon take stern action if incident repeats.
According to Reuters news reports, Chung Eui-yong, South Korea’s national security office chief, filed a strong protest to Russia’s secretary of the security council, Nikolai Patrushev, and asked the Russian council to verify the matter and report appropriate action over it, as per the presidential office’s official statement.
The statement cited Chung as saying, “We take a very grave view of this situation and, if it is repeated, we will take even stronger action.”
However, the Russian ministry of defence on Tuesday denied any wrongdoing and that its strategic bombers had breached Seoul’s airspace, according to Reuters.
It also accused South Korea’s aircraft of carrying out menacing maneuvers that appeared threatening its plane, according to RIA news agency.
In Seoul, defence ministers had said South Korea’s Air Force had launched hundreds of warning shots at an aircraft owned to the Russian military that had illegally on Tuesday crossed into South Korean airspace.
But however, Russian defence military dismissed those allegations, saying Seoul’s jet pilots hadn’t communicated with Moscow’s bombers.
The ministry claimed it was not the very first time when South Korea’s pilots had meddled with a Russian military jet over waters.