March 21, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Thursday summoned Russia’s military attache in Seoul, Col. Nikolai Marchenko, to formally protest multiple Russian warplanes’ entry into South Korea’s air defense identification zone, also known as the KADIZ.
In a statement to reporters, the ministry said it summoned Marchenko to protest strongly against the incident and to prevent anything similar in the future.
Multiple Russian military planes consecutively entered the KADIZ over the East Sea earlier in the day without responding to the South Korean military’s attempts to communicate with them, according to the ministry. The planes flew approximately 20 kilometers from South Korea’s airspace.
Thursday’s incident marked the eighth unauthorized entry of Russian aircraft into the KADIZ since March 11.
The South Korean military carried out countermeasures in accordance with the international maw to protest our airspace, the ministry highlighted.
The air defense zone is not a country’s territorial sky and extends beyond it. It is meant to give authorities an early warning of a possible incursion.