SEOUL (Reuters) – The North Korean military said it had coded warplanes after a US reconnaissance plane entered its economic zone off the east coast, state news agency KCNA reported on Friday.
The incident, which occurred Thursday, was “a dangerous military provocation” and North Korea was considering measures to deter future incursions, an unnamed spokesman for the Korean People’s Army General Staff said in the report.
The incident came Friday ahead of a summit between the United States, South Korea and Japan. A South Korean lawmaker said Thursday, citing that country’s intelligence agency, that North Korea may launch an intercontinental ballistic missile or take other military actions to protest the meeting.
President Joe Biden will meet with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David in Maryland, hoping to strengthen ties between Seoul and Tokyo amid nuclear threats from North Korea and at a time in which China’s regional influence is increasing.
South Korea and the United States will also begin 11 days of joint military exercises on Monday.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; editing by Alison Williams and Frances Kerry)
