Russian patrol planes entered airspace of U.S.-Japan drills Mon.

TOKYO, Dec. 8 Kyodo - Two Russian patrol planes entered airspace above the Sea of Japan where Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military were conducting joint drills earlier this week, causing the exercises to be temporarily suspended, government officials said Wednesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said at a news conference that Japan
immediately dispatched fighter jets to the area off the Noto Peninsula in
central Japan but declined to give further details due to the sensitivity of
the matter.
A spokesperson for Russia's Pacific Fleet acknowledged later in the day that
the two patrol planes, which belong to the Vladivostok-based fleet, entered the
training airspace, Interfax news agency reported.
But it quoted the spokesperson as saying that Russia did not go against
international law as the flight took place as planned in a region where the
Pacific Fleet operates on a daily basis.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Russian military's two Il-38 patrol
planes entered the airspace Monday morning while Japan and the United States
were engaged in drills to deal with ballistic missiles, and remained in the
area for several hours.
The drills were based on a scenario in which Japanese and U.S. Aegis destroyers
equipped with Standard Missile-3 missile interceptors were attacked by fighter
jets, but the destroyers were at the time docked at the Japanese Maritime
Self-Defense Force's Maizuru base in Kyoto Prefecture, mainly for refueling
purposes.
Due to the presence of the Russian planes, the drills were temporarily halted
for security reasons, and planes including Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighters
were scrambled.
Sengoku, the top Japanese government spokesman, said he would not comment on
how the government will handle the issue and whether it will protest through
diplomatic channels about the incursion by the Russian aircraft.
The eight-day drills, which are the largest-ever between Tokyo and Washington,
began last Friday and run through Friday, with the South Korean military taking
part for the first time as an observer amid heightened tensions on the Korean
Peninsula.
==Kyodo