N Korea Fighter Jets Flew Record Number Of Missions Last Mo-AFP
N Korea Fighter Jets Flew Record Number Of Missions Last Mo-AFP
SEOUL (AFP)--North Korea's fighter jets flew a record number of daily missions during exercises last month despite a nationwide shortage of fuel, experts said Thursday.
The jets staged more than 100 missions on a single day in January, breaking a 1995 record for daily sorties, according to a military official quoted by Yonhap news agency.
He said the communist state, between the late 1990s and this winter, had refrained from major military drills - possibly because of a lack of fuel.
"Despite its shortage of fuel, the North Korean military has significantly increased the size and quality of the winter exercise of its ground and air forces since late last year," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"In the case of the air force, we believe its training has more than doubled."
An expert writing in the military newspaper, Korea Defence Daily, also noted that January's air exercise was the first full-scale one in 13 years.
"Such a drill by North Korean fighter jets was very unusual because a shortage of fuel has even restricted their routine training sorties," wrote Yoon Kyu- Shik, a professor at the army administration school.
The South Korean defence ministry confirmed North Korean troops have been involved in what it called a regular winter exercise but refused to give details.
Yoon said tank and missile units also staged more intensive live-ammunition drills than before.
"North Korean troops, which started a winter exercise on Dec. 1, stepped up their operations in mid-January," he said.
The North, meanwhile, has protested an upcoming joint South Korean-US exercise called Key Resolve.
The March 2-7 joint drill will be the first to test Seoul's ability to wage war under a scenario in which it has regained wartime control over its troops from the United States.
South Korea ceded operational control over its military to the US-led United Nations Command shortly after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. It is due to regain wartime command over its troops by April 2012.
The two allies describe the drill as a purely defensive exercise, but North Korea condemns it as a preparation for an invasion.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-21-080302ET
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