Norks threaten Japanese air planes

Washington Post:

North Korea threatened Saturday to shoot down any Japanese planes that enter its airspace, accusing Tokyo of spying near one of its missile launch sites.

The North has designated a no-sail zone off its eastern coast from June 25 to July 10 for military drills, raising concerns that it might test-fire short- or mid-range missiles in the coming days, in violation of a U.N. resolution.

North Korea's air force said Japan's E-767 surveillance aircraft conducted aerial espionage near the Musudan-ri missile site on its northeast coast Wednesday and Thursday.

The country's official Korean Central News Agency said the air force "will not tolerate even a bit the aerial espionage by the warmongers of the Japanese aggression forces but mercilessly shoot down any plane intruding into the territorial air of the (North) even 0.001 mm."

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The North Korean Air Force has been so short of fuel that it has been unable to do routine training flights. The threat to the Japanese planes would likely come from surface to air missiles. I am not aware of how many of those they might have and their quality, but this type of air defense system has been greatly degraded because of US HARM missiles which can destroy the radar they use to acquire targets. I assume the Japanese have them in their inventory as well as countermeasures on the planes themselves.