- News>
- World
US delivers protest to N Korea over spy plane incident
Washington, Mar 11: The United States has delivered an official diplomatic protest to North Korea over an incident earlier this month in which North Korean fighter jets intercepted a US spy plane.
Washington, Mar 11: The United States has delivered an official diplomatic protest to North Korea over an incident earlier this month in which North Korean fighter jets
intercepted a US spy plane.
The state department said the protest was made orally,
six days after the white house said it would complain to
Pyongyang about its "reckless behaviour," to North Korean
diplomats at the United Nations.
"We reiterated our call on the North Koreans to adhere to international standards of behaviour and avoid any further provocative or escalatory steps," spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"We told the North Koreans that their provocations run counter to the international community's clear desire for a peaceful diplomatic path to ensuring a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula," he said.
Boucher's comments came in a written response to a question posed at yesterday's state department news briefing.
On March 4, the White House said it would lodge a formal diplomatic protest over the March 2 incident in which four North Korean fighters flew within 15 metres of the air force rc-135, 240 kilometres off the North Korean coast in international airspace over the sea of Japan.
The US aircraft returned to base in Japan after the confrontation, which came with the rivals dug into deep positions in a standoff over Pyongyang's twin nuclear programmes.
The incident represented the most alarming military faceoff between the cold war rivals since a crisis erupted after North Korea restarted a nuclear programme mothballed under a 1994 accord.
Bureau Report
"We reiterated our call on the North Koreans to adhere to international standards of behaviour and avoid any further provocative or escalatory steps," spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"We told the North Koreans that their provocations run counter to the international community's clear desire for a peaceful diplomatic path to ensuring a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula," he said.
Boucher's comments came in a written response to a question posed at yesterday's state department news briefing.
On March 4, the White House said it would lodge a formal diplomatic protest over the March 2 incident in which four North Korean fighters flew within 15 metres of the air force rc-135, 240 kilometres off the North Korean coast in international airspace over the sea of Japan.
The US aircraft returned to base in Japan after the confrontation, which came with the rivals dug into deep positions in a standoff over Pyongyang's twin nuclear programmes.
The incident represented the most alarming military faceoff between the cold war rivals since a crisis erupted after North Korea restarted a nuclear programme mothballed under a 1994 accord.
Bureau Report