Nearly a dozen North Korean fighter planes flew close to the border with the South, prompting Seoul to scramble jets in response, Yonhap reported Friday.
The incident took place amid rising military tensions on the peninsula over a flurry of weapons tests by Pyongyang and was the second such event involving fighter planes in a week.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), cited by Yonhap, said 10 fighters had been detected flying 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the inter-Korean border between 10:30 pm Thursday and 0:20 am Friday local time, crossing a Seoul-set “reconnaissance line” that triggers an automatic operational response from the South.
Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighter jets, according to the JCS, Yonhap reported.
The action comes shortly after Pyongyang test-fired a pair of long-range strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday, according to state media, tests supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Pyongyang has described its recent missile tests as tactical nuclear drills that simulated taking out airports and military facilities across South Korea.