The Chinese and Russians are apparently trying to show the ROK how united they are after President Biden’s trip to Korea and Japan:
“Prior to their entry into the KADIZ, our military deployed Air Force fighters to conduct tactical steps in preparation against potential accidental situations,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
At 7:56 a.m., two Chinese H-6 bombers entered the KADIZ from an area 126 kilometers northwest of Ieodo, a submerged rock south of the southern island of Jeju, according to the JCS. They moved toward the East Sea and exited the zone at around 9:33 a.m.
Later, the two Chinese warplanes joined four Russian warplanes, including two TU-95 bombers, and entered the KADIZ together at 9:58 a.m. They then left the zone at 10:15 a.m.
At around 3:40 p.m., four Chinese and two Russian military aircraft were spotted flying in an area some 267 km southeast of Ieodo — outside the KADIZ — the JCS said.
The ADIZ incursions happened reportedly last month before North Korea’s ICBM test:
Russian and Chinese military aircraft entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) without prior notice last month ahead of North Korea’s long-range missile launch, a Seoul official said Tuesday.
Two Russian planes flew into the KADIZ on March 24, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble its fighters to prevent their approach to the country’s airspace, according to the official.
The incident came just hours before Pyongyang test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the East Sea — a launch that ended its yearslong moratorium on nuclear and ICBM testing.
The Russian warplanes flew in the KADIZ northwest of South Korea’s Ulleung Island in the East Sea at around 11 a.m. and moved out of it 30 minutes later.
A day earlier, a Chinese military plane also entered the KADIZ near Ieo Islet, a submerged rock south of South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju. The official said the area was where the air defense identification zones of South Korea and China overlapped.
You can read more at the link, but China has been claiming Ieodo as their territory and have been flying bombers over it in response for years. The Russians have often had Korean ADIZ incursions and even actively violated Korean airspace over Dokdo before that led to warning shots from the ROK Air Force.
In North Korea they have no issue with arbitrarily killing people so of course they would support Russia doing the same thing against Ukrainians:
AP file photo, issued on March 26, 2022, shows U.S. President Joe Biden meeting with Ukrainian refugees during a visit to PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw. (Yonhap)
North Korea on Saturday condemned the United States for making the crisis surrounding Ukraine a human rights issue and imposing sanctions against Russia, denouncing U.S. President Joe Biden as “an old man in his senility” and a man of a “repeated slip of tongue.”
A commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the Ukraine issue has suddenly become a human rights issue, as the U.S. and western media branded the case as a war crime, with a politically motivated plot to defame Russia and to achieve the collapse of its regime.
“The latest story is the U.S. chief executive who spoke ill of the Russian president with groundless data,” the English-language article read. “Such reckless remarks can be made only by the descendants of Yankees, master hand at aggression and plot-breeding.”
The North then called Biden “an old man in his senility” with “a problem in his intellectual faculty,” and “the president known for his repeated slip of tongue,” though it stopped short of putting Biden’s name in the article.
“A big question is if he could ever have done anything right with such IQ during his florid 50-year political career,” according to the commentary.
It looks like the Russians are moving equipment from the Kamchatka peninsula and Kuril Islands over to to mainland to be transported over to the fight in Ukraine:
A Russian navy tank landing ship loaded with military vehicles was recently spotted in the narrow Tsugaru Strait between Japan’s main island, Honshu, and Hokkaido. (Japan Joint Staff)
Emanual was there to see off a 38-ton shipment of nonlethal military supplies, including helmets and bulletproof vests, that Japan donated to Ukraine.
Japan has reported spotting numerous Russia warships on the move in international waters near its northern borders this month.
Most recently, four Russian amphibious ships, traveling in pairs, were spotted east-northeast of Japan’s main island of Honshu on March 15 and 16, Japan’s Joint Staff said in a news release last week.
You can read more at the link, but Putin must be getting desperate if he is having to move equipment from the far reaches of Russia to fight the Ukrainians. Notice that the picture shows a ship filled with transport trucks. Shortages of trucks to move supplies into Ukraine has been something reported in the media that Russia has been lacking to sustain offensive operations.
This would be an interesting legal opinion to get on whether the Japanese pacifist constitution would allow them to conduct an offensive operation to reclaim land that was originally Japanese which is the case of the Kuril Islands. I doubt the Japanese would ever do such a thing though considering Russia’s nuclear arsenal:
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers to reporters’ questions at his official residence in Tokyo Friday, March 11, 2022.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday during a House of Councillors committee session that the northern territories are being “occupied illegally by Russia.”
The government had avoided using such an expression to promote negotiations for a peace treaty that would address the northern territories issue, but has now changed its stance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Foreign Ministry, this is the first time a Japanese prime minister in the Diet has referred to an “illegal occupation” regarding the northern territories since 2009, when then Prime Minister Taro Aso used the expression. At that time, Russia criticized its use, saying it was an attempt to challenge Russia’s sovereignty.
A Chinese academic Hu Wei is the vice-chairman of the Public Policy Research Center of the Counselor’s Office of the State Council has written an article that has been translated into English that provides some good analysis on how China should react to the current crisis in Ukraine. Ultimately He advocates for China breaking from Putin:
China should achieve the greatest possible strategic breakthrough and not be further isolated by the West. Cutting off from Putin and giving up neutrality will help build China’s international image and ease its relations with the U.S. and the West. Though difficult and requiring great wisdom, it is the best option for the future. The view that a geopolitical tussle in Europe triggered by the war in Ukraine will significantly delay the U.S. strategic shift from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region cannot be treated with excessive optimism. There are already voices in the U.S. that Europe is important, but China is more so, and the primary goal of the U.S. is to contain China from becoming the dominant power in the Indo-Pacific region. Under such circumstances, China’s top priority is to make appropriate strategic adjustments accordingly, to change the hostile American attitudes towards China, and to save itself from isolation. The bottom line is to prevent the U.S. and the West from imposing joint sanctions on China.
This is a list South Korea and Japan should be proud to be part of:
Russia has designated South Korea as an “unfriendly” nation after Seoul joined international sanctions against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, according to local reports Monday.
The Russian government released a decree that South Korea is included on its list of “unfriendly states” that “have carried out unfriendly actions” against Russia, its nationals or entities, Moscow’s state news agency TASS reported.
The United States, European Union states, Japan and several other nations that have imposed or joined sanctions against Russia following its attacks on Ukraine were also labeled as unfriendly states subject to restrictions imposed by Moscow.
North Korea has commented for the first time about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it is about what you would expect, Russia has done nothing wrong and it is all the U.S.’s fault:
North Korea spoke on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the first time three days after the first attack. North Korea defended Russia and criticized the United States. However, Pyongyang did not specifically mention the details of Russia’s invasion and did not voice its views in an official statement released by the government, but instead released a comment by a researcher at the Society for International Politics Studies, implying the North’s complicated calculations behind the latest incident.
On February 26, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs released on its website a post arguing that the U.S. should not tear down the foundation of international peace and stability in the name of Ri Ji-song, a researcher at the Society for International Politics Studies. Ri wrote that in every region and country that the U.S. intervened in, seeds of discord were being sowed and relationships between nations were deteriorating. He argued that this trend was being established like a principle and that this was the current international order. He further criticized, “The root cause of the Ukrainian crisis also lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the U.S. which has held on solely to the unilateral sanction and pressure while pursuing only global hegemony and military supremacy in disregard of the legitimate demand of Russia for its security.” Ri cited comments by global media and experts and claimed it was no coincidence that they found the fundamental reason for the Ukrainian crisis in the “imbalance of power in Europe due to the unilateral expansion of NATO and its threat as well as the grave threat to the national security of Russia.”
Anti-Russia protest Ukrainian nationals in South Korea and their supporters rally near the Russian Embassy in Seoul on Feb. 27, 2022, to protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Yonhap)
With things escalating in the Ukraine it makes me wonder if North Korea will be asked by the Russians to start a provocation cycle to split U.S. attention between two theaters?:
President Moon Jae-in addresses a meeting of the National Security Council at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Feb. 22, 2022, in this photo provided by his office.
President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected and South Korea will join efforts for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Moon made the remarks during a National Security Council meeting convened after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in Ukraine after recognizing their independence.
“Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected,” he said. “Countries around the world must come together and work for a swift and peaceful resolution to the situation in Ukraine. South Korea will actively participate in these efforts as a responsible member of the international community.”
