US Calls for Dialogue After North Korea Threatens to Shoot Down Spy Plane

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The United States on Monday urged North Korea to engage in dialogue after Pyongyang warned that it may shoot down a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane for allegedly intruding into its airspace.

“I would just say that we would urge the DPRK to refrain from escalatory actions and again call on it to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

DPRK refers to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Mr. Miller reiterated that Washington is willing to dialogue with North Korea without preconditions.

“We’ve made that clear on a number of occasions, and unfortunately, they have refused to engage in a meaningful way,” he added.

Mr. Miller also said that China, a major ally of North Korea, could play a role in convincing North Korea to take de-escalatory actions “if it chooses to” and that Washington will continue to urge Beijing to do so.

His comments came after Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the United States had flown a reconnaissance plane over North Korea’s economic exclusive zone multiple times on Monday.

She warned that the U.S. forces will “experience a very critical flight” if they continue to illegally intrude on North Korea’s airspace, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Flags of North Korea, rear, and South Korea, front, flutter in the wind in this photo taken from Paju, South Korea, on June 19, 2020. (Seoul Myung-gon/Yonhap via AP)

A spokesperson for North Korea’s Defense Ministry accused the United States of “provocative aerial espionage” and threatened to shoot down any reconnaissance plane intruding on its airspace, KCNA reported.

The spokesperson claimed that Washington had flown spy planes and drones—RC-135, U-2S, and RQ-4B—over the East and West seas of Korea between July 2 and July 9 and warned the country would “pay the price.”

“We are now maintaining our utmost patience and self-control, but everything has its limit,” the spokesperson stated.

“There is no guarantee that such shocking accident as the downing of the U.S. Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane will not happen in the East Sea of Korea.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh dismissed North Korea’s claim as a “just accusation” and reiterated that the U.S. military operates in accordance with international law.

“I just don’t have anything more to say on those comments or threats coming out of North Korea. We operate responsibly and safely in international waterways and airspace wherever we can,” she told reporters.

Pentagon deputy spokesperson Sabrina Singh holds a press briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 26, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The South Korean military also refuted North Korea’s assertion and said that the U.S. air surveillance assets regularly conduct reconnaissance flights around the peninsula, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, North Korea criticized the United States for deploying a nuclear submarine near the Korean Peninsula, calling it “the most undisguised nuclear blackmail” against North Korea and its neighboring countries.

“Whether the extreme situation, desired by nobody, is created or not on the Korean peninsula depends on the future action of the U.S., and if any sudden situation happens in the future, the U.S. will be held totally accountable for it,” it said.

Last month, the United States sent nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine USS Michigan to South Korea as part of the Washington Declaration signed between the two countries in April.

The USS Michigan is the first nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine to dock in South Korea in nearly six years. Its deployment came after North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea, which landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

A file image of the guided-missile submarine USS Michigan on April 25, 2017, in Busan, South Korea. (USN Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jermaine Ralliford via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol signed the Washington Declaration on April 29, outlining a set of U.S. extended deterrence measures involving deploying U.S. strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Biden has said the United States will deploy nuclear-capable systems to the Korean Peninsula.

In the declaration, South Korea expressed “full confidence” in U.S. extended deterrence commitments, and Washington pledged to make “every effort” to consult with South Korea on “any possible nuclear weapons employment” in the region.