Kim’s sister alleges ‘illegal intrusion’ of North Korean airspace by US surveillance, spy planes

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, issued a warning to the United States after Pyongyang said that it scrambled warplanes to ward off an American spy plane thathad intruded in its exclusive economic zone.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency carried a statement which said that the North Korean air force deployed a sortie of planes, which forced the US aircraft to "retreat".

Kim said, "The intrusion into the DPRK's 200-nautical mile economic water zone by the reconnaissance asset of the hostile country…is clearly a grave encroachment upon the sovereignty and security of the DPRK."

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She added that "a shocking incident would occur in the long run in the 20-40 section in which the US spy planes habitually intrude into the sky above the economic water zone" of North Korea.

Pyongyang accused the US air force of illegal intrusion stating that their drones and spy planes flew along its coasts for eight straight days, and the aircraft repeatedly violated the North Koreanairspace.

As per North Korea's Defence Ministry, the US apparently flew a strategic reconnaissance plane into its "inviolable airspace" several times. The nuclear-powered nation even warned that the US aircraft might be shot down.

The defence ministry said it was an intrusion, but Kim went on to accuse the US of conducting aerial surveillance over the North's exclusive economic zone.

Kim said that the US Air Force infiltrated into the North's "economic water zone" on Monday off the east coast of the Korean peninsula in the sky above the sea 435 km east of Tongchon of Gangwon Province and 276 km southeast of Uljin of North Gyeongsang Province.

Earlier, the Pentagon refuted Pyongyang's accusations of airspace violations and said the US military had adhered to international law. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters: "So those accusations are just accusations."

On being asked about Pyongyang’saccusations at a regular news briefing, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Monday urged North Korea "to refrain from escalatory actions" and reiterated a call for it "to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy".

In a statement released on Monday night, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang was escalating tensions by using threats over what it said was "normal flight activity" by the South Korea-US alliance.

But Kim criticised South as she said, "As regards the provocation by the US forces, the military of the 'ROK' again impudently took the lead in denying the encroachment on the DPRK's sovereignty, while shamelessly asserting that it was a 'normal flight'."

(With inputs from agencies)

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