South Korea and Russia face off in the skies

ONE HOPE behind the visit by John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, to Seoul this week was that it might help patch up a row between South Korea and another close American ally, Japan. The rift, with its roots in colonial history and wartime animosity, has brought trade sanctions from Japan. It is also jeopardising military co-operation and the renewal next month of an intelligence-sharing agreement—especially important in face of the threat from North Korea, which on July 25th was reported to have made its latest missile test. As Mr Bolton arrived two days earlier, his arguments for the importance of the agreement had already been bolstered by a vivid demonstration of the fragility of regional peace. South Korea’s fighter jets had fired 360 warning shots at a Russian military aircraft that it said had intruded into its airspace.

The details are disputed. South Korea said that Russian and Chinese planes had penetrated its self-declared Korean Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ), an area around its borders where it requires foreign planes to notify it of entry. A Russian spy plane then twice intruded into South Korean airspace, prompting the air force to scramble jets. Russia denied the incursion, and that shots had been fired. But it accused South Korea of “hooliganism in the air” for harassing its aircraft. The next day South Korea reported that Russia had changed tack, expressing “deep regret” and blaming the incident on a technical glitch.