Korean Air and Asiana diverted their flights..S. Korean President Lee Myung-bak, left, and N. Korean leader Kim Jong Il
International passenger flights have been diverted after the government of North Korea threatened military action against South Korean airliners in the latest escalation of verbal hostilities between the two enemies.
Both of South Korea’s airlines, Korean Air and Asiana, have diverted flights from the east after a statement on North Korea’s official media which implied a threat of attack against civilian aviation.
It came in a statement denouncing a joint military exercise between South Korea and the US, which Pyongyang accuses of representing preparations for an invasion of the North.“No one knows what military conflicts will be touched off by the reckless war exercises,” said the statement on the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday. “North Korea is, therefore, compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for south Korean civil airplanes flying through the territorial air of our side and its vicinity, its territorial air and its vicinity above the East Sea of Korea, in particular, while the military exercises are under way.”
The US statement described the statement as “distinctly unhelpful”, and the South Korean government demanded that it be withdrawn. “Threatening civilian airliners' normal operations under international aviation regulations is not only against the international rules but is an act against humanity,” a spokesman for the country’s unification ministry, Kim Ho Nyeon said in Seoul. “The government urges the North to immediately withdraw the military threat against civilian airliners.”
Courtesy: TIMES ONLINE
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