Airlines stay clear of North Korea after threat

Saturday 07th March, 07:11 AM JST

SEOUL —

South Korean and foreign airlines rerouted their flights away from North Korean airspace Friday after the North threatened passenger planes amid heightened tensions on the divided peninsula, officials said.

The move—which will cost carriers thousands of dollars for each flight—comes after North Korea warned in its state-run media that it cannot guarantee security for South Korean civilian airplanes flying near its airspace and accused the U.S. and South Korea of attempting to provoke a nuclear war with upcoming joint military drills.

It did not say what kind of danger South Korean planes would face or whether the threat meant the North would shoot down aircraft.

South Korea urged the North to retract the threat.

“The military threat against civil airplanes’ normal flights is a violation of international norms and an inhumane act that cannot be justified under any circumstances,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon told reporters.

Kim hinted that the warning may be intended to clear the airspace before a possible missile test by North Korea, but declined to elaborate.

North Korea announced last week that it is preparing to send a communications satellite into space. Regional powers suspect it is actually planning to launch a long-range missile that is capable of reaching Alaska.

In Tokyo, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen W Bosworth, called the threat against South Korean planes “unacceptable.” He also urged North Korea to refrain “from the provocation of firing a missile.” He was to head to South Korea on Saturday.

The United Nations Command, the U.S.-led body overseeing the 1953 armistice that ended the three-year Korean War, called the North’s threat “entirely inappropriate.”

During a meeting Friday with North Korean generals, members of the command urged the North to retract the threat.

North Korea rejected the demand, saying it made the decision to ban South Korean planes from flying near its airspace as a “self-defense measure” to fend off U.S. military threats, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The North’s chief delegate to the talks warned of “strong countermeasures” unless the United States calls off the joint military exercises with South Korea due to start Monday, KCNA said, without elaborating.

South Korea’s two major airlines—Asiana Airlines and Korean Air, the world’s largest international cargo carrier—said they would avoid North Korean airspace.

“We plan to make our flights detour through Japanese airspace until the crisis is resolved,” said Park Hyun-soo, deputy general manager of Asiana Airlines’ operations control center. He said rerouting planes would add about 40 minutes to flight times and cost about 4 million won ($2,500) per flight.

Air Canada and Singapore Airlines also rerouted flights to Seoul on Friday, an official at South Korea’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

South Koreans still vividly remember a North Korean bomb that exploded on a Korean Air flight in 1987, killing all 115 people on board, and a Korean Air plane that strayed into Soviet airspace in 1983 and was shot down by Soviet fighter jets, killing all 269 people aboard.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters Friday that “North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric is unwarranted and counterproductive.”

“It’s particularly unacceptable that they pose a threat to international civil aviation and global commerce with their most recent statements,” he said.

The U.S. military said it would go ahead with the joint military drills involving 26,000 U.S. troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers and a U.S. aircraft carrier. Both Washington and Seoul insist the annual exercises are purely defensive.

___

Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang in Seoul, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.

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Latest 15 of 22 Total Comments Show All

linro at 11:04 AM JST - 7th March

If North Korean wants peace then why make threats, North Korean is in the process of launching a missile under the disguise of a communication satellite,the last communication satellite flew over Japan. So to take the threat lightly rajakumar would mean you would be the only passenger on a commercial airline flying over NK. North Korean has suppressed and murdered its people for so long example a man chose to save a portrait of their GREAT idiot rather than his family during a flood and lost them. If you visit NK you are given a list of rules you have to abide by and they are all about praising the GREAT idiot!! Their threats are real and not to be taken lightly.
kwatt at 11:27 AM JST - 7th March

This NK military threat reminds me of SKorean Passenger Airline jet shot down in the sky above Soviet territory a couple of decades ago. That was really incredible disaster.
smithinjapan at 12:53 PM JST - 7th March

linro: "Their threats are real and not to be taken lightly."

And yet you say 'their great IDIOT' at least three times in your post, indicating you do not take them seriously at all. If you honestly believe the threats need to be taken seriously that means that what NKorea demands needs to be in part met. I agree with you then, in part; they need to be taken seriously and talked to diplomatically, rather than Japan demanding bilateral issues be resolved in six-nation talks, and they and the US simply saying they will sanction this and that.

The NK government most certainly is a bunch of babies, and this threat shows how desperate they are for the attention such 'babies' usually crave, and I seriously doubt they would make good on such threats. I DO think they are going to launch a dummy missile if things don't improve (ie. talks warm up a little) in the very near future, but beyond that I don't think they'll do much aside from further sabre-rattling.

The stakes are, however, a little too high to be playing any kind of tit-for-tat games for too long, and I don't think the reclusive state is about to capitulate under the increased rhetoric from other nations.

Go back to talking and not just threatening, and go from there.
smithinjapan at 12:55 PM JST - 7th March

kwatt: "This NK military threat reminds me of SKorean Passenger Airline jet shot down in the sky above Soviet territory a couple of decades ago. That was really incredible disaster."

Agreed, and I think the world is reminded of the same thing, and that that was the intention -- and hence how low it is -- of the NK threat. It's also why it's achieved some success in terms of some airliners taking precautions.
Weasel at 01:10 PM JST - 7th March

Sounds like the leader's supply of Hennesey cognac is getting low again.
skipthesong at 04:34 PM JST - 7th March

In any case, they would never file a long-range ballistic missile at a commercial airliner because I think it would be impossible to target (with such a missile)."

It might be impossible, but there is a chance it could hit, couldn't it? If missles can hit a Jet, why can't it hit an airliner?

This is a serious threat. Are you suggesting for it to be ignored now and do something only after something happens?
presto345 at 05:09 PM JST - 7th March

This NK military threat reminds me of SKorean Passenger Airline jet shot down in the sky above Soviet territory a couple of decades ago. That was really incredible disaster.

Exactly. There are those with the finger at the trigger and not afraid nor worried to activate it. You can't argue with people whose brains function 'differently' and have absolutely no respect for human life.
timorborder at 06:22 PM JST - 7th March

Is it time to consider playing hardball with North Korea?
sensei258 at 06:40 PM JST - 7th March

If only they didn't have nukes and a huge army, we'd kick their ass. Too bad.
likeitis at 08:36 PM JST - 7th March

Kim hinted that the warning may be intended to clear the airspace before a possible missile test by North Korea, but declined to elaborate.

Warning? Does that say warning? So why does the headline say "threat"?Why is everyone in this thread saying "threat"?

Look, if NK is about to conduct a launch, a warning about it to commercial aircraft is a KINDNESS, not a threat.

Or would you rather not hear about it until said missle goes off course prompting a scare that causes your flight to make an emergency landing on NK soil???

But then we go further into the article and we get:

North Korea rejected the demand, saying it made the decision to ban South Korean planes from flying near its airspace as a “self-defense measure” to fend off U.S. military threats, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Ban? How did we get to "ban"?

All that info in the article. Is it really too much to ask for the original quote from NK so can judge for ourselves if this a threat, a warning, or a ban?
SuperLib at 12:47 AM JST - 8th March

Is it really too much to ask for the original quote from NK so can judge for ourselves if this a threat, a warning, or a ban?

Just prepare your defense for North Korea using any of the three.
likeitis at 09:34 AM JST - 8th March

Just prepare your defense for North Korea using any of the three.

While you prepare your attack using whatever strikes your fancy?
SuperLib at 09:42 AM JST - 8th March

Come on likeitis....say it: What has North Korea ever done? ;)
likeitis at 10:13 AM JST - 8th March

Come on likeitis....say it: What has North Korea ever done? ;)

This is not about the past of NK. This is about today.

Now I asked a simple question, a question relevant to the thread. Did you just come here to dodge it?
ca1ic0cat at 10:47 PM JST - 9th March

The NK warning to airliners to avoid even coming close to their airspace is a complete breach of international norms. Not that this is a surprise, coming from NK. Like Nessie said, the dear little pipsqueak has found a new method to pitch a fit.

When are the Chinese going to spank their brat?