U.S. Military Jets Stray Over N. Korea

Two U.S. military aircraft inadvertently crossed the border into North Korean air space but were safely brought back by emergency radio calls to the pilots, the U.S. military command in Seoul said Friday.

North Korea's official foreign news outlet, KCNA, warned Friday that the crossing could aggravate improving relations on the Korean peninsula.

The two aircraft were on a training mission Thursday when they mistakenly flew into North Korean air space across the 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone separating the two Korean states, it said.

Command officials refused to give other details, including the types of aircraft and whether there was any firing by North Korea. An investigation was under way.

The American-led U.N. Command said it has informed North Korea of the incident and asked for a border meeting to discuss "this incident as well as several North Korean MDL (military demarcation line) crossings in recent weeks."

The command declined to elaborate.

North Korea's KCNA agency said two American "fighter planes" infiltrated deep into air space near Kaesung, a major North Korean city. Kanghwa is located at the western end of the Korean border facing the Yellow Sea.

"As soldiers of the (North) Korean People's Army took a prompt self-defensive measure, the fighter planes flew back to Kanghwa island," it said.

"This incident was a product of the deliberate and premeditated moves of the U.S. warlike forces to aggravate the daily improving situation on the Korean Peninsula," the KCNA report said.

The incident occurred a day after U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended a historic two-day visit to North Korea aimed at improving ties between Washington and Pyongyang.

The United States fought against North Korea on South Korea's side in the 1950-53 Korean War. About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a defense treaty.

The incident occurred on the first day of a 10-day annual joint military exercise with South Korean troops, called Foal Eagle. The exercise is the biggest of several joint training maneuvers held annually.

North Korea denounced the exercise as arm-twisting tactic against it.

"It is as good as spoiling the good atmosphere created in favor of reconciliation and cooperation," a spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said in a report carried by the KCNA on Thursday.

South Korea and the United States have characterized past military exercises as defensive, but North Korea has denounced them as a rehearsal for a northward invasion.

In 1994, a U.S. Army helicopter was shot down after intruding North Korean airspace. One pilot survived but the other was killed. The surviving pilot and the body of the dead pilot were later returned.

On Thursday, North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korean militaries of hurting thawing relations by holding a joint military exercise.

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