A South China Airlines jet carrying 220 passengers narrowly avoided collision with one of several missiles launched by North Korea on Tuesday afternoon, a South Korean official said.
Flight CZ628 was cruising at 10,000 metres (32,800 feet), heading to Shenyang after taking off from Narita airport in Japan when it passed through the trajectory of a rocket launched just seven minutes earlier by Pyongyang.
The rocket, which reached a height of 20,000 metres (65,600 feet), "could have hit the plane on the way down", South Korean defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. "North Korea had not given any warning. It was an unexpected and immoral act that goes against international norms."
Recent missile launches from North Korea have coincided with joint US-South Korea military drills, disrupting a period of easing tensions between the two Koreas. Four of the seven missiles launched on Tuesday flew more than an estimated 150 kilometres (93 miles), the South Korean defence ministry said, far enough to reach Seoul.
Washington called for North Korea to halt the tests immediately, saying they risked inflaming tensions in the region, with Seoul deeming the launches a "reckless provocation". The DPRK hit back on Wednesday, defending the military tests as justifiable self-defence drills, and damning US-South Korea criticism of them as "vicious".
While their has been no comment on the near-miss, Beijing has recently distanced itself from Pyongyang, with China voting in favour of a new sanctions resolution in the UN Security Council condemning North Korean nuclear tests.
[Photo via AP/SCMP]
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