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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Series of Nork fighter jet crashes last year |
| 2011-02-18 |
| TOKYO, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- A series of North Korean fighter jets crashed last year during training held in response to military exercises in South Korea, a high-level Seoul official said Thursday. North Korea views military drills in the South, including those involving American troops, as preparations to invade the country, and puts its own forces on alert and stages counter-exercises. Holding such counter-drills, which drain its scarce resources, are considered painful to the impoverished nation. South Korea and the U.S. are believed to have held more military drills than usual last year in an attempt to put pressure on the communist nation that was blamed for the sinking of the South's warship Cheonan in March and shelled the South's border island of Yeonpyeong in November. "If exercises are held in the South, the North cannot but stage counter-exercises. That is bound to increase difficulties (in the North) under the current situation," a high-level South Korean official visiting Tokyo told reporters. "North Korean troops also appear to suffer as they have to get into underground tunnels" during such drills. The official said that the North suffered a series of fighter jet crashes during such counter-exercises last year, but did not provide specifics, such as when and how many jets went down. North Korean fighter jets are considered vulnerable to crashes as pilots often lack adequate training due to scant fuel. "I think there were many crashes as they did a lot of training to counter exercises in the South in a situation where fuel is not enough and the number of training sessions was not high," the official said on condition of anonymity. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #9 Again, NORTH KOREA + even SOUTH KOREA have vested interests in preventing a DE FACTO CHINESE TAKEOVER OF NORTH KOREA FOR ANY REASON. North Korea wants to see iff China will accept foreign econ presence in North Korea, while China wants Regional + Trans-regional Base Rights throughout East Asia + US Milfors withdrawal from same, which Japan + South Korea [ASEAN = South China Sea States?]don't want unless they possess NucWeaps which China doesn't want them to have. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-02-18 23:41 |
| #8 I wouldn't be surprised if they run out of gas because they don't want them to fly to South Korea and claim amnesty. |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-02-18 12:45 |
| #7 For pilots to be good they must fly a lot. North Korea does not fly often due to wear and tear and fuel and maintenance costs. They crash because they are green pilots who will never get any better flying obsolescent aircraft that are poorly maintained. Their air force would last maybe 10 minutes if the balloon goes up. |
| Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar 2011-02-18 09:59 |
| #6 Thus saving enough old newspapers to make soup for dozens of their countrymen for months. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-18 09:28 |
| #5 The North Korean command will show those traitorous pilots who intentionally crash their aircraft. Instead of loading their parachute bags with old newspapers, they just won't issue them any parachute bags at all. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-18 09:27 |
| #4 All of the above. And they probably have a lot more planes and pilots than they do fuel to fly them. So who cares if they lose one every now and then? Only the fighter pilot who believed it would never happen to him. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-02-18 08:25 |
| #3 The losses aren't due to the jets running out of gas. The losses are due to inadequate training. The inadequate training is due to a lack of jet fuel in the country. Indian MiG-21s crash all the time and they don't have defection problems. |
| Posted by: gromky 2011-02-18 02:20 |
| #2 Another reason for losses due to fuel exhaustion is that the NKor's like to keep the fuel load at a minimum so the pilot doesn't defect with the aircraft. |
| Posted by: tipover 2011-02-18 00:43 |
| #1 "North Korean troops also appear to suffer as they have to get into underground tunnels" during such drills. And we are probably watching to see where those tunnels are, too. |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-02-18 00:11 |