NORTH KOREA: North Korean fighters intercepted a US surveillance plane and indicated it might open fire in the worst incident between the rivals since a nuclear crisis erupted last year, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.
At one stage the fighters came within 15 metres of the Air Force RC-135S aircraft on Sunday, said Lieut Commander Jeff Davis.
"The fighters were armed. During the intercept at least one of the fighters engaged fire support radar and locked on to the RC-135," said Lieut Commander Davis.
Turning on the fire support radar is normally the final stage before opening fire on a target.
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 kilometres away.
The US aircraft was about 240 km off the North Korean coast, in the Sea of Japan, when it was intercepted by four North Korean fighter aircraft, the official said.
Lieut Commander Davis said two MiG-29s and what appeared to be two MiG-23s tailed the US plane for 22 minutes.
The spokesman said it was the first incident since August 1969, when a US EC-121 was shot down over the Sea of Japan, killing 31 people.
Tensions have been building since North Korea admitted to the US last year that it had pursued nuclear weapons research after signing a 1994 accord freezing its atomic programme.
North Korea claimed a US RC-135 spy plane penetrated its airspace over the Sea of Japan as part of preparations for a pre-emptive attack. The Pentagon denied the accusation.
The North Koreans tested a cruise missile over the Sea of Japan the same day, which was when the new South Korean president, Mr Roh Myung-Hoo, was inaugurated in Seoul.
And at around the same time, North Korea restarted a five megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which had been frozen in 1994 as part of a deal with the US that averted a previous nuclear crisis.
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.
Asked if the UShad protested to Pyongyang about Sunday's incident, Lieut Commander Davis noted that Washington had no formal relations with North Korea.
Two years ago, a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy EP-3 surveillance plane in international airspace off the Chinese coast. The Chinese jet crashed into the sea, killing the pilot, but the crippled US aircraft landed on China's Hainan Island.
The US crew were held for 11 days before being released, which sparked a major rift between Washington and Beijing.