Seoul, Dec. 9, 2025 — South Korea’s military says it scrambled fighter jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft entered and then left the country’s Korea Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) on Tuesday.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) reported that seven Russian planes and two Chinese planes entered the KADIZ at about 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) and subsequently departed, with no violation of South Korea’s territorial airspace. An earlier Newsis report had put the number of aircraft at 11.
The JCS said the foreign aircraft were identified and South Korean fighters were dispatched to respond to any contingencies. Yonhap News Agency quoted the military as saying the aircraft spent roughly an hour in the KADIZ off the country’s east and south coasts. Chinese and Russian forces typically conduct joint operations around the Korean Peninsula once or twice a year, Yonhap added.
