The North Korean shooting down an airliner with an anti-aircraft missile has always been something I have been concerned about. Could you imagine what that would do to air traffic to Incheon International Airport? It would basically shut off all air travel to Incheon for who knows how long which would have huge economic impacts for South Korea. This is why I have never been a huge fan of where the international airport was constructed. However, shooting down an airliner would be a huge provocation that could trigger a military response in retaliation, so I think the Kim regime would try and shoot down a military aircraft before trying something like this. Shooting down a military aircraft is something they have done before and in recent years have deployed their SA-5s along the DMZ to threaten ROK aircraft. The North Koreans just test fired an anti-aircraft missile which makes me wonder if they are trying to signal something to South Korea that they best watch their aircraft?:
SA-5 anti-aircraft missile.
North Korea on Friday launched a surface-to-air missile into waters off its east coast, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, a move seen as a show of defiance against mounting pressure to give up its nuclear program.
The North fired off the anti-aircraft missile at around 12:45 p.m. from South Hamgyong Province in the country’s northeastern area. The missile was fired toward the East Sea, according to the JCS.
It said that the military is on high alert amid heighten cross-border tensions following the North’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.
Seoul, earlier thought the North fired a ballistic missile, but on close examination of the trajectory picked up by its radar said it was a surface-to-air missile. The missile flew some 100 kilometers.
The North’s provocation came as President Park Geun-hye held a three-way summit with her counterparts from the United States and Japan on Thursday in Washington to discuss how to deal with the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Park warned of additional tougher sanctions against North Korea if the communist country carries out another provocation.
Also on Friday, South Korea’s defense ministry said that the North is continuing to jam GPS signals in South Korea in an attempt to raise tensions on the peninsula. [Yonhap]
