Seoul: South Korea fired 360 warning shots at a Russian A-50 military aircraft after it violated its airspace on Tuesday.
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first incursion was made around 9.09 am (local time) in the Sea of Japan near the Dokdo islets. Seoul scrambled fighter jets in response to the violation of its air defence identification zone.
South Korea deployed several F-15 and F-16 fighters that fired flares and warning shots after issuing warning messages.
The Russian aircraft left South Korea's airspace within minutes but committed another similar violation 15 minutes later, Officers of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Furthermore, at 9:33 am it again entered Korea's air defence identification zone, but four minutes later it left the airspace.
Russia, however, denied violating South Korea's airspace.
Although, Moscow has confirmed that two of its bombers carried out a planned drill over neutral waters and denied any warning shots were fired by the Korean jets.
It is the first time that a Russian military aircraft have violated South Korean sovereign airspace, though Russian planes have entered Korea's ADIZ in the past.
This incident occurred just hours after four other military aircrafts two Chinese and two Russian planes entered South Korea's air defence identification zone around the Sea of Japan without permission.
A country's ADIZ usually extends past its territory to allow more time to identify or respond to potentially hostile aircraft.
