Fears of thugs-for-hire in Hong Kong after mob attack - CNN

The men, whose ages range from 24 to 54, will face charges of "unlawful assembly" police said in a press conference on Monday. Their motives are still under investigation but police said some of those arrested had links to local criminal gangs known as Triads.

Footage posted on social media Sunday night showed a marauding gang of masked men, wearing white T-shirts and wielding batons and sticks, blindly attacking crowds on the platform and inside train carriages at Yuen Long MTR station, in the far northwest of the city.

Tens of thousands had taken to the streets Sunday for the seventh consecutive weekend, amid an ongoing political crisis over a now-suspended extradition bill.

Many of those caught up in the violence were returning home after taking part in mass demonstrations in the city, leading to accusations that the gangs had been paid to stoke unrest and target protesters.

Forty-five people were hospitalized following the violence in Yuen Long, with one person in critical condition, according to Hong Kong's Information Services Department. Videos showed people being beaten on the floor and left bloodied and dazed.

The incident angered many in the city, a feeling that was exacerbated by police taking around an hour to arrive on scene and not making any arrests that night. The nature and ferocity of the attack also has people questioning Hong Kong police's ability to protect the city's residents.

Protesters have vowed to march in Yuen Long on Sunday to protest the violence.

What, or who, are Triads?

The six men were detained after raids on their homes in Yuen Long and nearby Tin Shui Wai districts -- which are close to the Chinese border -- on Monday, according to the New Territories North Regional Crime Unit.

The suspects include drivers, vendors, renovation workers and the unemployed and police said some had "Triad backgrounds."

Triad is a name given to Hong Kong's organized crime syndicates that make their money through illicit drugs, gambling and prostitution among other activities. It has also become to refer to more loosely organized criminal gangs in the city. Some groups, especially the bigger, more powerful gangs who operate in the rural New Territories villages, wield political power through district councils and other political connections.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said on Facebook that the scenes in Yuen Long were evident of a "more than apparent collusion between the police and the Triads in that neighborhood."

Police Commissioner Stephen Lo on Monday denied accusations that law enforcement officials were working with gangs hired to attack protesters and said the delay was because police resources were deployed to the main protest site on Hong Kong island, about an hour away from Yuen Long.

"We will investigate whether we were inefficient but we are not related to triads. I ask you to trust the police force. Last night, we were all focusing on Hong Kong island. We needed to regroup for Yuen Long," he said.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam called such accusations "insulting."

Thugs for hire

But similar claims of collusion were made in 2014, when masked men with alleged links to organized crime attacked Umbrella Movement protesters who had occupied the city's Mong Kok district for weeks. Protesters said police failed to protect them and did not arrest people seen committing violence, a charge the force denied at the time.

In their study "Resurgent Triads? Democratic mobilization and organized crime in Hong Kong," researchers concluded that the 2014 Mong Kok attackers were "low-level Triads affiliates" that were paid to attack the protesters.

The researchers Federico Varese from the University of Oxford and Rebecca WY Wong City University Hong Kong said Triad groups "might have found a new role as enforcer of unpopular policies and repression of democratic protests in the context of a drift towards authoritarianism in Hong Kong."

Professor T Wing Lo, expert in triad societies at City University of Hong Kong, told CNN that the level of organization in the scenes from Sunday suggest it was carried out by by a Triad group.

"But the participants were not all triad members," he said. "Some were just ordinary villagers, some were paid to do a job."

Lo said the group who carried out the attack in Yuen Long would likely have been paid by pro-Chinese authorities.

"All the crime committed by Triads is for money," Lo said. "We call this extralegal governance -- sometimes when governments cannot use the formal law enforcement for whatever reason, they pay for it. This is the normal way to do business."

While police have not confirmed that the incident in Yuen Long was coordinated under the direction of a Triad group, the phenomenon of thugs-for-hire is common across the border in mainland China.

Authorities are known to employ criminals to impose policies or enforce decisions, according to Lynette Ong, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and author of "'Thugs-for-Hire': State Coercion and "Everyday Repression" in China."

"Third-party violence is commonly deployed by the state to evict homeowners and to deal with petitioners and protestors in China," Ong said in her 2015 paper.

That alleged link between Hong Kong Traid groups and mainland Chinese authorities goes back decades.

Following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and some Triad groups offering to help smuggle fleeing democracy leaders, Beijing embarked on a "deliberate strategy to "woo the Triads into the pro-Beijing camp," which included granting business opportunities to leaders in exchange for support in Hong Kong.

"Preparing for the island handover to China in 1997, the Beijing government was worried that Triads societies, and in particular the most powerful Sun Yee On Triad, would side with liberal political activists and destabilize post-1997 Hong Kong," Varese and Wong said.

CNN's James Griffiths, Jayden Sham, Maisie Mokg and Chermaine Lee contributed.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/asia/hong-kong-triad-arrests-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-07-23 09:22:00Z
52780335250017

South Korean and Russian warplanes face-off in rare mid-air confrontation - CNN

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff accused a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft of twice violating South Korean airspace off the country's eastern coast on Tuesday morning.

The incursion came during what South Koreans officials believe was a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise. Two Chinese H-6 bombers had passed into Seoul's air identification zone just hours before, joined by another two Russian military planes, according to defense officials.

It is the first time a foreign country has violated South Korean airspace, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

The confrontation took place over disputed islands in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The two, small islands, known to the Koreans as Dokdo and to the Japanese as Takeshima, are claimed by both countries.

Japan also confirmed it scrambled fighter jets in response to the Russian incursion, Tuesday.

"We confirmed Russia's A50 has invaded Japan's airspace while two of Russian TU-95 bombers and two Chinese H-6 bombers flew around Japan. We took measures against the invasion" said a spokesman for the country's ministry of defense.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that two Tu-95 strategic bombers had carried out a planned flight in the airspace over neutral waters of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and accused South Korean fighter pilots of acting inappropriately.

"(They) conduced unprofessional maneuvers by crossing the course of Russian strategic missile carriers, threatening their security," the ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

"South Korean pilots did not contact the crews of Tu-95ms, the F-16 fired a round of flares and carried out a maneuver, moving away from Russian aircraft."

When asked about the incident, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they weren't aware of the details and referred the question to the Defense Department.

South Korea, Russia point fingers

According to the South Korean military, the Russian A-50 flew above islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan, first at 9.09 a.m. local time and then again at 9.33 a.m., each time for just a matter of minutes.

In response, South Korea deployed F-15F and KF-16 fighter jets, the statement said, and fired 360 warning shots ahead of the Russian aircraft, 80 during the first violation and 280 during the second. The shots were fired using 20mm weapon, according to the Ministry of Defense.

The South Korean military said they also sent out 30 warnings to the Russian plane but received no response. The A-50 is an unarmed AWACS plane, standing for Airborne Warning and Control System, designed for tracking and observation.

South Korea said it was one of two incidents involving Russia Tuesday. According to the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, two Chinese H-6 bombers entered the Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) at 6.44 a.m. local time and then 7.49 a.m., after which they met up with the two Russian TU-95 bombers. The four planes then entered the KADIZ together at about 8.40 a.m. and remained there for 24 minutes.

Airspace is defined as the area 12 nautical miles from a country's borders, which falls entirely under its control. An ADIZ is an area in which the controlling country demands identification, location and control of aircraft's direction, but doesn't necessarily have any rights of engagement under international law.

South Korea's KADIZ was first established in 1950 and most recently adjusted by Seoul in 2013.

But in their statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense made no mention of the A-50. Instead it accused the South Korean jets of behaving inappropriately towards the two Russian TU-95 bombers who were flying "over neutral waters."

"This is not the first time the South Korean pilots have unsuccessfully tried to prevent Russian aircraft from flying over the neutral waters," the Russian statement said, adding it didn't recognize South Korea's KADIZ.

It also denied that there was any "warning fire," adding if the Russian pilots had felt "any threat to their security, the response would not be long in coming."

War of words

Chung Eui-yong, director of South Korea's National Security Office, said that he had sent a "strong" message of complaint to the Russian authorities over the incident.

"We are taking this situation very seriously, and if this kind of action is repeated, we will take even stronger measures," Chung said, without detailing what those measures could be.

Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the United States' Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said that shooting a warning shot in the air was "very very serious" and "very, very rare."

Schuster said that the fact shots were fired meant Seoul had viewed the violation as a serious and deliberate act, adding he couldn't explain why the Russian plane would come back again after the first warning.

"Penetrating to a point of requiring warning shots to turn away is normally the result of a deliberate decision to penetrate that airspace," he said.

Though East Asia is riven by numerous, long-standing territorial disputes, Russia and South Korea rarely come into conflict.

Top Russian and South Korean leaders at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, in June, where they praised their warming bilateral relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said South Korea was "one of our key partners" in Asia.

It is the second tense incident involving the Russian military in East Asia in less than two months. On June 8 two vessels from the US and Russia almost collided in the Pacific, coming within 50 feet of each other.

The exact location of the standoff wasn't clear but it was believed to take place in the waters off the coast of China.

Relations between Beijing and Moscow have reached an "unprecedented" peak in the past year, according to Russia's Putin, including growing cooperation between their two militaries.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/asia/south-korea-russia-military-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-07-23 09:04:00Z
52780337956008

South Korean and Russian warplanes face-off in rare mid-air confrontation - CNN

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff accused a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft of twice violating South Korean airspace off the country's eastern coast on Tuesday morning.

The incursion came during what South Koreans officials believe was a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise. Two Chinese H-6 bombers had passed into Seoul's air identification zone just hours before, joined by another two Russian military planes, according to defense officials.

It is the first time a foreign country has violated South Korean airspace, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that two Tu-95 strategic bombers had carried out a planned flight in the airspace over neutral waters of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and accused South Korean fighter pilots of acting inappropriately.

"(They) conduced unprofessional maneuvers by crossing the course of Russian strategic missile carriers, threatening their security," the ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

"South Korean pilots did not contact the crews of Tu-95ms, the F-16 fired a round of flares and carried out a maneuver, moving away from Russian aircraft."

When asked about the incident, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they weren't aware of the details and referred the question to the Defense Department.

South Korea, Russia point fingers

The confrontation took place over disputed islands in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The two, small islands are known to the Koreans as Dokdo and to the Japanese as Takeshima. They're situated about halfway between both countries.

According to the South Korean military, the Russian A-50 flew above islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan, first at 9.09 a.m. local time and then again at 9.33 a.m., each time for just a matter of minutes.

In response, South Korea deployed F-15F and KF-16 fighter jets, the statement said, and fired 360 warning shots ahead of the Russian aircraft, 80 during the first violation and 280 during the second. The shots were fired using 20mm weapon, according to the Ministry of Defense.

The South Korean military said they also sent out 30 warnings to the Russian plane but received no response. The A-50 is an unarmed AWACS plane, standing for Airborne Warning and Control System, designed for tracking and observation.

South Korea said it was one of two incidents involving Russia Tuesday. According to the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, two Chinese H-6 bombers entered the Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) at 6.44 a.m. local time and then 7.49 a.m., after which they met up with the two Russian TU-95 bombers. The four planes then entered the KADIZ together at about 8.40 a.m. and remained there for 24 minutes.

Airspace is defined as the area 12 nautical miles from a country's borders, which falls entirely under its control. An ADIZ is an area in which the controlling country demands identification, location and control of aircraft's direction, but doesn't necessarily have any rights of engagement under international law.

South Korea's KADIZ was first established in 1950 and most recently adjusted by Seoul in 2013.

But in their statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense made no mention of the A-50. Instead it accused the South Korean jets of behaving inappropriately towards the two Russian TU-95 bombers who were flying "over neutral waters."

"This is not the first time the South Korean pilots have unsuccessfully tried to prevent Russian aircraft from flying over the neutral waters," the Russian statement said, adding it didn't recognize South Korea's KADIZ.

It also denied that there was any "warning fire," adding if the Russian pilots had felt "any threat to their security, the response would not be long in coming."

War of words

Chung Eui-yong, director of South Korea's National Security Office, said that he had sent a "strong" message of complaint to the Russian authorities over the incident.

"We are taking this situation very seriously, and if this kind of action is repeated, we will take even stronger measures," Chung said, without detailing what those measures could be.

Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the United States' Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said that shooting a warning shot in the air was "very very serious" and "very, very rare."

Schuster said that the fact shots were fired meant Seoul had viewed the violation as a serious and deliberate act, adding he couldn't explain why the Russian plane would come back again after the first warning.

"Penetrating to a point of requiring warning shots to turn away is normally the result of a deliberate decision to penetrate that airspace," he said.

Though East Asia is riven by numerous, long-standing territorial disputes, Russia and South Korea rarely come into conflict.

Top Russian and South Korean leaders at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, in June, where they praised their warming bilateral relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said South Korea was "one of our key partners" in Asia.

It is the second tense incident involving the Russian military in East Asia in less than two months. On June 8 two vessels from the US and Russia almost collided in the Pacific, coming within 50 feet of each other.

The exact location of the standoff wasn't clear but it was believed to take place in the waters off the coast of China.

Relations between Beijing and Moscow have reached an "unprecedented" peak in the past year, according to Russia's Putin, including growing cooperation between their two militaries.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/asia/south-korea-russia-military-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-07-23 08:36:00Z
52780337956008

South Korean Jets Fire Warning Shots Toward Russian Military Plane - The New York Times

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said its air force jets fired hundreds of warning shots on Tuesday to ward off a Russian military plane that intruded upon its territorial airspace, the first such encounter between the countries in decades.

The Russian and Chinese aerial incursions into sensitive airspace between South Korea and Japan — two key American allies — was a daring challenge to Washington and Seoul.

Three Russian military planes, as well as two Chinese warplanes, on Tuesday entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone off its east coast, where foreign military aircraft must identify themselves in advance to South Korea, the South’s military said.

But one of the Russian planes, a Beriev A-50 early warning and control aircraft, flew closer to South Korea, intruding twice into its territorial airspace near Dokdo, a cluster of South Korean-held islets that are also claimed by Japan, the South Korean military said.

Both times, the Russian plane violated South Korea’s airspace for a few minutes, prompting South Korean F-15 and F-16 fighter jets operating nearby to fire 20 flares and 360 machine gun rounds as warning shots from a half mile away, the officials said. The South Korean jets took the action after the Russian plane did not answer repeated radio warnings.

The South Korean military provided no further details. But its officials said that it was highly unusual for Russian and Chinese planes to stage a joint flight mission over the sea between South Korea and Japan.

In recent years, long-range bombers and reconnaissance planes from the Russian and Chinese militaries have frequently entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone, prompting its air force to dispatch fighter jets to confront them.

But the episodes on Tuesday marked the first time in recent memory that a Russian warplane entered South Korea’s territorial airspace without approval, South Korean officials said.

Chung Eui-yong, the national security adviser for President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, sent a warning to his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Mr. Moon’s office said on Tuesday. It warned that South Korea would take “a far stronger action” if Russia tried similar maneuvers.

Seoul also planned to summon Russian and Chinese diplomats in South Korea to lodge a protest, officials said. And the Japanese government lodged a formal complaint against both the Russian maneuvers and South Korean machine gun barrage over “our territory,” the Kyodo News agency reported.

Military planes that enter another country’s air defense identification zone must notify that country in advance, but in recent years countries in the region have often accused each other of violating that protocol. If a military plane enters the zone without proper notice, the host country may order it to leave, or dispatch military jets to confront the intruding aircraft.

The Russian Defense Ministry denied it violated any country’s airspace over what it called “neutral waters,” according to Russian media. It instead accused two South Korean F-6 jets of carrying out dangerous maneuvers that threatened its aircraft.

In 2013, South Korea expanded its air defense identification zone for the first time in 62 years to include airspace over the East China Sea that is also claimed by China and Japan. With South Korea’s expansion, the air defense zones of all three countries now overlap over a submerged reef called Ieodo in South Korea and Suyan Rock in China.

South Korea expanded its air patrol zone two weeks after China stoked regional tensions by unilaterally expanding its own air patrol zone to include airspace over the reef. The expanded Chinese air control zone also covers a set of East China Sea islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, which are at the heart of a territorial feud between Japan and China.

The overlapping zones have raised the risk of military tensions in the region.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/world/asia/south-korean-warning-shots-russia-planes.html

2019-07-23 08:10:52Z
52780337956008

South Korean Jets Fires Warning Shots Toward Russian Military Plane - The New York Times

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said its air force jets fired hundreds of warning shots on Tuesday to ward off a Russian military plane that intruded upon its territorial airspace, the first such encounter between the countries in decades.

The Russian and Chinese aerial incursions into sensitive airspace between South Korea and Japan — two key American allies — was a daring challenge to Washington and Seoul.

Three Russian military planes, as well as two Chinese warplanes, on Tuesday entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone off its east coast, where foreign military aircraft must identify themselves in advance to South Korea, the South’s military said.

But one of the Russian planes, a Beriev A-50 early warning and control aircraft, flew closer to South Korea, intruding twice into its territorial airspace near Dokdo, a cluster of South Korean-held islets that are also claimed by Japan, the South Korean military said.

Both times, the Russian plane violated South Korea’s airspace for a few minutes, prompting South Korean F-15 and F-16 fighter jets operating nearby to fire 20 flares and 360 machine gun rounds as warning shots from a half mile away, the officials said. The South Korean jets took the action after the Russian plane did not answer repeated radio warnings.

The South Korean military provided no further details. But its officials said that it was highly unusual for Russian and Chinese planes to stage a joint flight mission over the sea between South Korea and Japan.

In recent years, long-range bombers and reconnaissance planes from the Russian and Chinese militaries have frequently entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone, prompting its air force to dispatch fighter jets to confront them.

But the episodes on Tuesday marked the first time in recent memory that a Russian warplane entered South Korea’s territorial airspace without approval, South Korean officials said.

Chung Eui-yong, the national security adviser for President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, sent a warning to his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Mr. Moon’s office said on Tuesday. It warned that South Korea would take “a far stronger action” if Russia tried similar maneuvers.

Seoul also planned to summon Russian and Chinese diplomats in South Korea to lodge a protest, officials said. And the Japanese government lodged a formal complaint against both the Russian maneuvers and South Korean machine gun barrage over “our territory,” the Kyodo News agency reported.

Military planes that enter another country’s air defense identification zone must notify that country in advance, but in recent years countries in the region have often accused each other of violating that protocol. If a military plane enters the zone without proper notice, the host country may order it to leave, or dispatch military jets to confront the intruding aircraft.

The Russian Defense Ministry denied it violated any country’s airspace over what it called “neutral waters,” according to Russian media. It instead accused two South Korean F-6 jets of carrying out dangerous maneuvers that threatened its aircraft.

In 2013, South Korea expanded its air defense identification zone for the first time in 62 years to include airspace over the East China Sea that is also claimed by China and Japan. With South Korea’s expansion, the air defense zones of all three countries now overlap over a submerged reef called Ieodo in South Korea and Suyan Rock in China.

South Korea expanded its air patrol zone two weeks after China stoked regional tensions by unilaterally expanding its own air patrol zone to include airspace over the reef. The expanded Chinese air control zone also covers a set of East China Sea islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, which are at the heart of a territorial feud between Japan and China.

The overlapping zones have raised the risk of military tensions in the region.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/world/asia/south-korean-warning-shots-russia-planes.html

2019-07-23 08:03:45Z
52780337956008

South Korea fires 360 warning shots at Russian military aircraft - CNN

In a statement, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft twice violated South Korean airspace off the country's eastern coast on Tuesday morning.

The incursion came during what South Koreans officials believe was a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise. Two Chinese H-6 bombers had passed into Seoul's air identification zone just hours before, joined by another two Russian military planes.

CNN has reached out to be China and Russia for comment on the incident.

The South Korean military said the Russian A-50 flew above islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan, first at 9.09 a.m. local time and then again at 9.33 a.m., each time for just a matter of minutes.

The two, small disputed islands are known to the Koreans as Dokdo and to the Japanese as Takeshima. They're situated about halfway between both countries.

In response, South Korea deployed F-15F and KF-16 fighter jets, the statement said, and fired 360 warning shots ahead of the Russian aircraft, 80 during the first violation and 280 during the second. The shots were fired using 20mm weapon, according to the Ministry of Defense.

The South Korean military said they also sent out 30 warnings to the Russian plane but received no response. The A-50 is an unarmed AWACS plane, standing for Airborne Warning and Control System, designed for tracking and observation.

It is the first time a foreign country has violated South Korean airspace, according to the ministry.

Chung Eui-yong, director of South Korea's National Security Office, said that he had sent a "strong" message of complaint to the Russian authorities over the incident.

"We are taking this situation very seriously, and if this kind of action is repeated, we will take even stronger measures," Chung said, without detailing what those measures could be.

Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the United States' Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said that shooting a warning shot in the air was "very very serious" and "very, very rare."

Schuster said that the fact shots were fired meant Seoul had viewed the violation as a serious and deliberate act, adding he couldn't explain why the Russian plane would come back again after the first warning.

"Penetrating to a point of requiring warning shots to turn away is normally the result of a deliberate decision to penetrate that airspace," he said.

It was one of two incidents involving South Korea, Tuesday. According to the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, two Chinese H-6 bombers entered South Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) earlier on Tuesday.

Airspace is defined as the area 12 nautical miles from a country's borders, which falls entirely under its control. An ADIZ is an area in which the controlling country demands identification, location and control of aircraft's direction, but doesn't necessarily have any rights of engagement under international law.

South Korea's KADIZ was first established in 1950 and most recently adjusted by Seoul in 2013.

The two Chinese bombers entered the KADIZ at 6.44 a.m. local time and then 7.49 a.m., after which they met up with the two Russian TU-95 bombers. The four planes then entered the KADIZ together at about 8.40 a.m. and remained there for 24 minutes, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It isn't immediately clear whether the Russian A-50 intentionally violated South Korean airspace.

The incident is unusual. Though East Asia is riven by numerous, long-standing territorial disputes, Russia and South Korea rarely come into conflict.

Top Russian and South Korean leaders at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, in June, where they praised their warming bilateral relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said South Korea was "one of our key partners" in Asia.

It is the second tense incident involving the Russian military in East Asia in less than two months. On June 8 two vessels from the US and Russia almost collided in the Pacific, coming within 50 feet of each other.

The exact location of the standoff wasn't clear but it was believed to take place in the waters off the coast of China.

Relations between Beijing and Moscow have reached an "unprecedented" peak in the epast year, according to Russia's Putin, including growing cooperation between their two militaries.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/asia/south-korea-russia-military-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-07-23 06:52:00Z
52780337956008

South Korea fires 360 warning shots at Russian military aircraft - CNN

In a statement, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft twice violated South Korean airspace off the country's eastern coast on Tuesday morning.

The incursion came during what South Koreans officials believe was a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise. Two Chinese H-6 bombers had passed into Seoul's air identification zone just hours before, joined by another two Russian military planes.

CNN has reached out to be China and Russia for comment on the incident.

The South Korean military said the Russian A-50 flew above islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan, first at 9.09 a.m. local time and then again at 9.33 a.m., each time for just a matter of minutes.

The two, small disputed islands are known to the Koreans as Dokdo and to the Japanese as Takeshima. They're situated about halfway between both countries.

In response, South Korea deployed F-15F and KF-16 fighter jets, the statement said, and fired 360 warning shots ahead of the Russian aircraft, 80 during the first violation and 280 during the second. The shots were fired using 20mm weapon, according to the Ministry of Defense.

The South Korean military said they also sent out 30 warnings to the Russian plane but received no response. The A-50 is an unarmed AWACS plane, standing for Airborne Warning and Control System, designed for tracking and observation.

It is the first time a foreign country has violated South Korean airspace, according to the ministry.

Chung Eui-yong, director of South Korea's National Security Office, said that he had sent a "strong" message of complaint to the Russian authorities over the incident.

"We are taking this situation very seriously, and if this kind of action is repeated, we will take even stronger measures," Chung said, without detailing what those measures could be.

Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the United States' Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said that shooting a warning shot in the air was "very very serious" and "very, very rare."

Schuster said that the fact shots were fired meant Seoul had viewed the violation as a serious and deliberate act, adding he couldn't explain why the Russian plane would come back again after the first warning.

"Penetrating to a point of requiring warning shots to turn away is normally the result of a deliberate decision to penetrate that airspace," he said.

It was one of two incidents involving South Korea, Tuesday. According to the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, two Chinese H-6 bombers entered South Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) earlier on Tuesday.

Airspace is defined as the area 12 nautical miles from a country's borders, which falls entirely under its control. An ADIZ is an area in which the controlling country demands identification, location and control of aircraft's direction, but doesn't necessarily have any rights of engagement under international law.

South Korea's KADIZ was first established in 1950 and most recently adjusted by Seoul in 2013.

The two Chinese bombers entered the KADIZ at 6.44 a.m. local time and then 7.49 a.m., after which they met up with the two Russian TU-95 bombers. The four planes then entered the KADIZ together at about 8.40 a.m. and remained there for 24 minutes, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It isn't immediately clear whether the Russian A-50 intentionally violated South Korean airspace.

The incident is unusual. Though East Asia is riven by numerous, long-standing territorial disputes, Russia and South Korea rarely come into conflict.

Top Russian and South Korean leaders at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, in June, where they praised their warming bilateral relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said South Korea was "one of our key partners" in Asia.

It is the second tense incident involving the Russian military in East Asia in less than two months. On June 8 two vessels from the US and Russia almost collided in the Pacific, coming within 50 feet of each other.

The exact location of the standoff wasn't clear but it was believed to take place in the waters off the coast of China.

Relations between Beijing and Moscow have reached an "unprecedented" peak in the epast year, according to Russia's Putin, including growing cooperation between their two militaries.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/asia/south-korea-russia-military-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-07-23 06:29:00Z
CAIiEAhxXpv4AjnGPmQz4h_RTAoqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowocv1CjCSptoCMPrTpgU