N. Korea says it will shoot down U.S. spy jets flying over rocket launch site

SEOUL, April 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Wednesday it will shoot down any U.S. spy jets monitoring its imminent satellite launch, an unusually harsh threat against the routine aerial reconnaissance activity.

The North regularly publishes its count of aerial spy flights by South Korea and
the United States.
The warning followed the North's own report on Tuesday saying the U.S. and South
Korea conducted at least 190 aerial espionage missions over its territory,
including flights over a northeastern region where the North is preparing to
launch a rocket as early as this weekend.
North Korea has said it will send a communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2,
into space between April 4 and 8. The rocket carrying the alleged satellite is
expected to be launched from Musudan-ri in North Hamgyong Province on the
country's east coast.
"Should the U.S. imperialist racketeers dare to perpetrate aerial espionage,
interfering with our preparations for a satellite launch for peaceful purposes,
our revolutionary forces will shoot them down without spare," said the Korean
Central Broadcasting Station, the North's state-run radio.
On Tuesday, North Korea's official media, the Korean Central News Agency, said
the U.S. spy jet RC-135 photographed North Korean strategic targets in the
Musudan-ri launch site on March 13, 17 and 22.
"This is a wanton infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK (North Korea