hankyoreh

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The United Nations Command and South Korea demanded yesterday that North Korea withdraw its threat to passenger airplanes, condemning it as inhumane.

North Korea said it cannot guarantee the safety of South Korean civilian airplanes passing through the North’s territorial airspace during the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise Key Resovle, which is scheduled for March 9-20. It did not, however, mention the safety of civilian airplanes from other countries.

North and South Korea have allowed civilian airplanes to pass through their respective airspace since April 1998.

During the 16th round of “general-level” military talks between the UNC and North Korea, held at the truce village of Panmunjom, the UNC expressed strong objections to a recent threat from Pyongyang, saying that it does nothing to ease tensions on the peninsula and also is inhumane.

The North countered that a plan to go ahead with Key Resolve is the reason for the heightened tensions, and called for an immediate halt to the exercise.

The Seoul government also issued a statement, joining the UNC in condemning Pyongyang’s threat to passenger airplanes. “Making a military threat against the ordinary operation of civilian airplanes runs against international norms and is also inhumane.” It called on the North to withdraw the threat immediately.

Civilian airplanes are taking extra precautions as a result of the threat. “Right after the North’s statement was made, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines rerouted two of their planes and the adjusted flight plan remains in effect today... Discontinuation of the new flight plan will depend on future developments in the situation,” Seoul’s Unification Ministry said in a statement.

The airline companies are now preparing to adjust their flight plans, as rerouting the flights will increase the total flying time. A Korean Air official said, “The flight time will likely increase by around 30 minutes to 1 hour, and this could affect some passengers with tightly-scheduled connecting flights. Flight schedules will need to be adjusted.”

Korean Air will have to reroute 74 flights a week to Japanese airspace and Asiana Airlines will have to reroute 19, at a cost of between 3 million to 4 million won for the additional fuel consumed, according to information from officials of the two companies.

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