- Nine Chinese and Russian military aircraft briefly entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone on Dec. 9, prompting a response by South Korean fighter jets.
- The aircraft did not violate South Korean airspace and exited the zone after about an hour, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Nine Chinese and Russian military aircraft briefly entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) on Tuesday, prompting the South Korean Air Force to dispatch fighter jets as a precautionary response, according to the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The JCS said two Chinese military planes and seven Russian aircraft entered the KADIZ sequentially around 10 a.m. local time above waters east and south of the Korean Peninsula. The aircraft included both bombers and fighter jets.
South Korea’s military emphasized that the aircraft did not violate the country’s sovereign airspace but had entered a zone established to prompt foreign aircraft to identify themselves in order to prevent accidental military encounters. “We detected the aircraft before they entered the KADIZ,” the JCS said in a statement.
Military aircraft from both countries remained inside the zone intermittently for about an hour before exiting, according to a JCS official. Fighter jets from the Republic of Korea Air Force were scrambled in response to monitor the situation and to be ready for any contingencies.
South Korea’s air defense identification zone is not internationally recognized territorial airspace but is used for early warning and air traffic control, especially in proximity to military operations by regional actors.
Since 2019, joint China-Russia air patrols in the region have occurred on an annual or semiannual basis, often without prior notice. The JCS noted that such events have happened “once or twice a year” since that time. In the most recent previous incident, 11 aircraft from both countries entered the KADIZ together in November 2024.
These flights come amid increasing military coordination between Beijing and Moscow in Northeast Asia. Their aircraft routinely patrol international airspace in areas that overlap with air defense zones of South Korea and Japan, triggering alerts and diplomatic concerns in both countries.