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Some 10 minutes before North Korea test-fired its fist missile early Wednesday, an Asiana Airlines passenger plane crossed the missile¡¯s future trajectory above the East Sea, it emerged Thursday, highlighting Pyongyang¡¯s recklessness in firing the rockets without warning.
The first missile was fired at 3:32 a.m. Asiana says flight OZ 235 from Chicago to Incheon International Airport flew across the area above the East Sea between 2:30-3:10 a.m. The track chart confirms the story.
The airline says there is no way of knowing how dangerous the situation was since it has no information about the flight time and altitude of the missile. But chances are that a planeload of passengers had a close shave.
North Korea gave no warning before test-firing altogether seven missiles on Wednesday, saying there was no point since spy satellites have been monitoring its every move for a month.
But its failure to give fair warning could have endangered airplanes or ships and does violate international law. North Korea is obliged to give advance notice of any missile it fires to the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization. When it test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile in 1998, the North also ignored that obligation and was given a warning by the UN Security Council.
What¡¯s worse, the North did nothing to protect fishing vessels from South Korea, Japan and Russia in the East Sea while giving secret notice to its own vessels to stay out of the waters since July 3. The Japanese government said some 280 fishing boats were out around the time the missiles were fired close to areas where missiles fell.
Local governments and fishermen in Japan have slammed their central government for issuing an emergency evacuation order at 8:53 a.m., a full five hours after the first missile was launched.
South Korea issued no such order, even though it admits it intercepted the North Korean warning to fishing boats as early as July 3. Seoul believes it has done enough by closely watching whether the North would actually fire the missiles and postponing the foreign minister¡¯s overseas trip. In short, the government knew but did not tell the public of the danger ahead.
Government officials say they kept the lid on classified information concerning national security since they were unsure whether the North would go ahead with the launch, but would have confidentially warned airlines and told fishing businesses to stay clear after the missiles were launched.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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