North Korean MiGs intercept US spy plane

2.15pm

WASHINGTON - Four North Korean fighter jets intercepted a US Air Force reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Sea of Japan on Sunday and came within 50 feet of the big American jet while shadowing it, the Pentagon says.

Two MiG-29 fighters and two others believed to be MiG-23s intercepted the four-engine RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft 150 miles (240 km) off the coast of North Korea and shadowed the American jet for about 20 minutes, said Navy Lt Commander Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

"The closest point they came was within 50 feet" of the RC-135, he said, adding the Air Force plane was on a routine reconnaissance mission at the time.

Senior US officials said Washington would formally protest the incident, once the best means for such a move had been determined. North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations.

"This will be formally protested. This is particularly provocative and has the potential to frighten our allies even more than previous provocations," said a senior Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another official said the United States was in "close consultation" with South Korea and other allies about the incident and how to lodge a protest.

Pentagon spokesman Davis initially said one of the North Korean jets, which were armed, had locked on to the RC-135 with its fire-control radar, but later said that was not certain and the Defense Department was checking tapes of the incident.

He said the jet had used its "acquisition radar" on the RC-135, but the Pentagon was not sure the more threatening radar used to direct missiles had been turned on.

Davis said he had no indication that US fighter jets were called to protect the reconnaissance plane before it returned to its home base at Kadena Air Base in Japan.

The incident came as tension continued to rise on the Korean peninsula over the North's suspected nuclear arms ambitions, and as the United States builds up military forces in the Gulf in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq.

A North Korean fighter jet also flew briefly into South Korean airspace last week.

North Korea on Saturday accused the United States of stepping up spy flights as a preparation for war as South Korea's new president vowed to work for a swift, peaceful end to the nuclear crisis on the peninsula.

Pyongyang had earlier complained that a US RC-135 aircraft had been flying repeated sorties inside its airspace.

The interception incident occurred on Sunday Korean time and at about 0148 British Time, said Davis.

He told reporters it was the first known such interception incident involving North Korean and US aircraft since North Korean jets shot down an American reconnaissance plane in international airspace in 1969, killing 31 people aboard.

The RC-135 is an updated spy version of the venerable old Boeing 707 commercial jet and is packed with sophisticated electronic gear. Known by the Pentagon as "Rivet Joint," the aircraft is capable of tracking troop and other military movements on the ground hundreds of miles (km) away.

Tension over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons plans rose recently after Washington, citing satellite photographs, said North Korean scientists had fired up a reactor mothballed since 1994 at the Yongbyon complex north of Pyongyang.

- REUTERS