Posted on 12/08/2013 9:32:17 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Korea Declares New Air Defense Zone
The government on Sunday announced a new air defense identification zone with the same boundaries as Korea's Flight Information Region and overlapping with both the Chinese and Japanese zones.
The new zone stretches 236 km south of the submerged reef of Ieo, which also lies in the Japanese and Chinese zones, and includes Marado and Hongdo, an inhabited island that is also part of Japan's zone.
The eastern and western boundaries remain the same as before.
The old zone had been in place since it was delineated by the U.S. Air Force in March 1951, in the middle of the Korean War, and was being seen as an anomaly here. The move comes after China unilaterally last month declared its own zone covering Korean-controlled airspace.
A high-ranking Defense Ministry official said, "The adjustment is in line with the international aviation order and international regulations. Ahead of the announcement, we offered sufficient explanations to related countries."
The official added that they understand "to a certain extent" that the changes are not "excessive."
The expanded zone will go into effect after a week's notice period on Dec. 15.
But Korea lacks the military capability to monitor and protect the widened zone. A military source on Sunday said in an emergency the Air Force's state-of-the-art F-15K fighter jets would be capable of engaging in maneuvers over Ieo for "only around 20 minutes," while the mainstay KF-16 fighter jets can only operate in the area for "three to five minutes" before having to return for refueling.
"Only the F-15Ks are capable of operating in the region," the source added.
They are stationed at an air base in Daegu, which is 520 km away from Ieo and makes operations there inefficient.
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told lawmakers on Saturday that moving the F-15Ks to an air base in Gwangju "could shorten the time" required to mobilize the aircraft. The Gwangju base is around 90 km closer to Ieo.
But military officials said relocation is not being considered at the moment.
P!
I can haz expanded ADIZ!
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/12/09/2013120901600.html
China Stages Drills Near Korean Peninsula
The Chinese military has staged massive military exercises around the Korean Peninsula after it declared a new air defense identification zone late last month that partly overlaps with South Korea’s and Japan’s.
The exercises also came amid reports of the ouster of North Korean eminence grise Jang Song-taek.
The Shenyang Military Region, one of seven military regions in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that would be mobilized in an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, last Wednesday began cold-weather exercises in and around Mt. Baekdu, which marks the border with North Korea, the official Chinese military paper said Saturday.
It said some 3,000 soldiers from the Shenyang Military Region moved to a training ground near Mt. Baekdu, and are practicing to improve their operational capabilities in cold weather and unfamiliar terrain.
“Unlike in previous drills, the troops did not conduct any on-site survey or adaptation training for the ongoing exercises,” the daily added. “They will change areas of training continuously to improve their skills in real combat.”
A train loaded with Chinese tanks heads for Mt. Baekdu for winter drills on Friday. /Peoples Liberation Army Daily A train loaded with Chinese tanks heads for Mt. Baekdu for winter drills on Friday. /People’s Liberation Army Daily
At the same time, the Chinese Navy is carrying out live fire drills in Bohai Bay and the West Sea across the Korean Peninsula, the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong reported Saturday.
The drills, which will continue until Friday, are the first in the northern seas since China declared the new air defense zone in the East China Sea. It waged similar drills in the area on Nov. 15-22, right before declaring the zone, the Hong Kong daily said.
Meanwhile, the Jinan Military Region mobilized some 20,000 troops from the Army, Navy, Air Force and missile units for drills on the Shandong Peninsula close to South Korea and Japan, Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News reported Sunday.
“The troops conducted night live fire exercises mobilizing a military reconnaissance satellite,” the daily said without specifying a date.
englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 09, 2013 12:24 KST
Bump
What is wonderful is that if these people want to start a war, we get dragged into it.
With 60% of U.S. force deployed in Asia, while China continue to expand its sphere of influence, being dragged into it is not something U.S. is able to avoid, short of full retreat back to Hawaii.
Hmmmm. Looks like a bit of poker playing with ADIZ chips. Interesting northern boundary of the ADIZ too but then, it obviously has to be north of the 38th. It looks to me like it parallels the 39th parallel.
The article certainly puts out a lot of specific details, doesn’t it?
Good, if the Asians want to have a war let them go at it, pull everything out and say have fun! We don’t owe them a damned thing.
Yeah, it is a geopolitical chess game.
We have a mutual defense treaty with Japan. If they get attacked, we go to war. If they get attacked, and we don't go to war, then we will never have an ally again.
Great. Three countries claiming an overlapping area. What could go wrong? Maybe World War III won’t be starting in the Middle East after all.
Considering that our involvement in World War II started when one of those countries attacked us at Pearl Harbor, Asian conflict leading to a world war is a very real possibility.
What isn't as well known to Americans is that Pearl Harbor was preceded by many years of warfare between Japan and China, much of which was precipitated by still earlier conflicts between Japan, China, and Russia over who would control the Korean peninsula and its warm water ports to which Russia badly wanted access. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria and subsequent invasion of the rest of China happened at least in part because of Korean independence fighters — some of whom were Communist and some of whom were virulently anti-Communist — based in portions of Manchuria adjacent to what is now North Korea who were causing problems for the Japanese occupiers of Korea.
The United States, which at that time was a major exporter rather than importer of oil, finally got tired of selling oil to the Japanese war machine which was committing horrible atrocities in China. Rather than backing down and making peace in China, the Japanese decided to “go for broke” and start a war with the West rather than just with China. That decision wasn't stupid. The hope was gaining access to the breadbasket of the US-controlled Philippines and the oil of the Dutch colonies which are now Indonesia, and it came quite close to succeeding.
Of course, Japan is no longer a military threat and has not been for more than half a century. Its aging population and sclerotic economy mean it probably won't be an economic threat a generation from now.
But just as the conflict of the early 1900s over who would control the Korean peninsula led to a war between Russia and Japan which established the reputation of Japan as a world-class military power, it is very possible that a conflict a century later in the Korean peninsula could have long-term world-changing consequences.
Americans ignore Asian issues at our peril.
Interesting info. If China and/or Russia attack Japan, then we are supposed to defend them. Course “O the One” is totally undependable in that regard. Not sure we could do that much to help them anyway, the way this administration has gutted the military and misused them.
Japan better be building up their military again, and planning on doing their own heavy lifting. Russia and China are building up their forces for sure, and they are going to gain a military advantage in space, since we have basically withdrawn from the competition.
The times are really changing, and not necessarily for the better.
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