Tuesday, December 10, 2013

China Rattled by Reactionary South Korean ADIZ Expansion

China expressed “regret” Monday over South Korea’s declaration of an air defense zone overlapping Beijing’s in the latest ratcheting up of tensions over territorial disputes involving Japan, China and South Korea that the U.S. has been seeking to tamp down.

China urged Seoul to proceed “safely and cautiously” in dealing with the overlap from “South Korea’s expansion of its air defense identification zone,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

South Korea caught Beijing and Tokyo off guard Sunday with the announcement that Seoul’s existing air defense zone was being expanded about 150 miles to the south to include a submerged reef called Ieodo in South Korea and Suyan Rock in China.

Maj. Gen. Chang Hyok, a senior South Korean Defense Ministry official, said that in declaring the zone “our top priority is to prevent accidental military clashes in the area.”

The expansion meant that the air zones declared by South Korea, Japan and China over the East China Sea now all overlap. The Japanese and Chinese zones both include space over disputed islets called the Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China.

Unlike the air defense zone announced by China two weeks ago, the South Korean zone will not affect civilian flights.

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