N Korea intercepts US spy plane

-- A U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted over the Sea of Japan on Sunday by four armed North Korean MiG fighter jets, U.S. military sources said.

At least two of the planes were MiG-29s. The two other fighters were thought to be MiG-23s.

U.S. military sources said Monday that the Air Force plane was in international airspace about 150 miles [240 kilometers] off the Korean peninsula when the MiGs approached and flew alongside for 20 minutes, at some points coming within less than 400 feet of the U.S. plane.

One of the North Korean fighters locked its targeting radar onto the RC-135.

The RC-135 is a modified version of the military C-135 cargo plane, which is based on the Boeing 707 commercial airliner.

The Air Force plane returned to its base in Okinawa, Japan, without incident. U.S. officials say it was the first incident of a U.S. plane being intercepted by North Korean aircraft in more than 30 years.

The previous incident occurred in 1969, when a North Korean fighter shot down a U.S. EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing more than 30 U.S. airmen, according to a Pentagon official.


Story: www.cnn.com...

The North Koreans seem pretty aggressive.

war is on the horizon. does kim think he can really win? its freaky cause maybe he has sometinup his sleeve???? China maybe??? Are NK and China allies

Korea leader seems to want to imply his country is a superpower, The US will may very well be ready to begin to see if they are ready to walk the walk.

As far as China yes they are an Ally to North Korea but there are several issues and amongst them are these flagrant threats. This despite consistent US overtures for peaceful resolution.

lets say NK would shoot down a plane of our(like china did) over international water but they captured and killed the pilots. ACT OF WAR who thinks china would back them or let us kick the snot out of em

When you play with fire you get burnt!

I think it would be in their best interest to step aside, if not join us, if we attacked NK.

I think China will make efforts to protect NK unless it tries to initiate a nuclear war. The Leader of NK's reactions and aggression in respect to this could very well indicate that. In other words his threats of using WMD if the United States or SK invades him, is not descriptive of Chinas acceptance that he do so. But rather China's present response that if he does that they will launch an attack against NK.

So in response to you question my impression that if a scenario like that occured China would not interfere with a US lead invasion. But, it will not allow the US to take control of the Capitol City as a reuslt of such an invasion. If at any time North Korea responded with WMD, China would respond by attacking North Korea. If China entered NK for the purpose of protecting the efficacy government of NK; the NK leader could very well no longer remain in charge. And itís even conceivable that as a reuslt the NK would cease to be a country and become part of China. There are some serious tactical issues in respect to the reaction of US and SK troops in respect to Chinese incursions into NK. But if China is prepared to oust the NK leader then the US and SK should back off. Feel fairly certain the Chinese can present some evidence to that effect if that if fact is there intent.


Consider that the behavior of the NK President is one of fear over the fact his forces (from the estimation of analyst in his own country), could not in reality defeat the US and SK conventionally without the help of the Chinese government. And that China is no longer interested in playing games with him.

ABC news reported that one of the NK fighters got within 50ft of the American reconnaissance aircraft. That is still fairly far, nonetheless he is starting to behave like a person who for some reason is running out of time.

I have a feeling that North Korea is acting as a front for China... That is the only reason I can see that NK would want to screw with the US... Unless Kim has some strange belief that if he were to use nukes on us, we would refrain due to our SK allies, or for fear of angering the Chinese....

like with the other MiG that flew into s. korea airspace earlier in feb. i said that this would be the first of many of these incidents. looks as if i am right but really, this is just drinking milk compared to what will happen soon. i see a massive flight of the Red Air Force flying over south korea and wiping out most of the US ground based troops, destroying, many air fields, and then a run on the battle groups and a naval battle in which many n. korean MiGs will be lost in kamikaze, the us will suffer a great defeat in this battle in the east sea, then a possible attack by japan that is repelled by chinese interferance. i also agree with the theory that n. korea is a front. the red powers, n. korea, china, russia, cuba, and them, should unite. if they worked together then their mixed ideas would have a lot more effect. communism can never be perfected as long as they hold on to material wealth, but someday the true red will rise after much bloodshed. is this the war?

I read a book recently (was sci fi, granted), that had a very realistic account of NK invading SK.

It started out with a surprise rocket attack on Seoul with VX warheads, which wiped out about 90% of the population. This was followed by a human wave attack (coming up behind US positions by way of tunnels secretly tunneled under the mountains) which overran most US forces. NK forces were finally stopped when they entered the ruins of Seoul by US nuclear weapons, but with an estimated death toll of 5 million+.

its about a dinky country with monetary issues that decides that starting a war with the USA was the only way to get their country rebuilt by the USA.

HMMMMMMMMM?

Sounds kinda familiar eh?

That kimass must have cable or at least TMC!!

This I think is a storm in a teacup. However the original poster's cut'n'paste referred in passing to the EC-121 incident of 1969 (SAM said the NK; AAM said America) - this was very interesting and like the Pueblo incident of the previous year, it offers many possible parallels.
The presidents were LBJ and Nixon -both embroiled in a progressively more hopeless Vietnam. The carrier groups were dispatched, the sabres rattled; but it went badly for the US in terms of diplomacy and humiliation.
Interested posters should search both; but I can recommend this link for an overview.
www.sftt.org...
( and an interesting site, quite often)

" anybody ever see the old movie "the mouse that roared"? "

Yep, I saw it. An old movie, but it still a good and funny one. Especially when the USA are agree to surround to the tiny country but the tiny country is upset, because them, they want to be overrun by the USA.

USA : " Ok guys, you have won the war "

Ennemy : " NO WAY !!! We didn't win any war ! Its you who have won the war !!! Overrun us "

USA : " Noooo, really, believe us. You have won ! "

And for the N-Koreans, the big problem with them is that they are in a dead end. These NK make me think about rats. Until they are not in a dead end and that they can go away they don't attack you. But when they are trapped.............

alil bit of a commie arnt we phoenix_cross??? First of all a massive air force attack by whom??? NK if so they would have to etheir fly over NK,SK boarder and be dominated by anti aircraft and many SK aircraft that are on alert constanly. ok if some survived then they would attack us bases that are protected with SAMs lets even go as far as sayin they do that. The battle groups would be on full alert by now with f-14 flying all around and intercepting the migs which are far less advanced the u have the entire battle group that is trained to take down an air attack. WHy would japna attack us if they did their economy would go down the toilet. Also Russia and CHina unite hahahaha. thats funny they cant stand each other. But if they did it would be once again the cold war and we would win again.

are fairly routine between countries not getting along. The lock on was simply a threat. In the future, I'd hope they'd use some fighter escorts to accompany such planes, as in case you didn't know, the C135 isn't exactly made for dogfighting, hehe...but I'd love to see the look on the MIGs' pilots' faces when they got a missle warning and see nothing else on radar...

LOL that would be great. Hahaha