North Korea's Air Force Command yesterday threatened to "punish" the US for its spy flights over the communist state, recalling the fate of a US Navy plane it shot down 37 years ago.
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the air force said that a US RC-135 reconnaissance plane had made flights over its territorial waters on June 6, 8 and 10.
Describing the alleged US espionage flights as "openly crying out for a preemptive attack" on the communist state, the command warned of a possible repeat of 1969, when it shot down another US Navy plane, killing all 31 crew.
"The [North Korean] Air Force seriously warns the US imperialists that it will sternly punish the aggressors if their planes continue illegally intruding into the sky ... on espionage missions," it said.
"They had better not forget the miserable end EC-121 met in the 1960s."
North Korean fighters shot the reconnaissance plane down off the country's east coast in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) in April 1969.
Another US-North Korean incident occurred when North Korea fired missiles at an SR-71 spy plane in August 1981. The "Blackbird" jet was undamaged.
North Korea has been sensitive to US spy flights, with its media citing military sources as issuing a monthly report on US aerial espionage. Yesterday's statement was rare in that it was issued in the name of the Air Force Command.
North Korea has claimed the US is preparing to invade the communist country despite repeated US denials.
The two sides are locked in a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang declared in February last year that it had built nuclear weapons.
During six-way talks in September, North Korea agreed in principle to dismantle its weapons program in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits and security guarantees.
But North Korea has boycotted the talks since November when it said US financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over allegations of money laundering were blocking progress.
Pyongyang has said it would return to talks -- which involve both Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia -- only after the sanctions are lifted.
One North Korea expert here said yesterday's strongly-worded North Korean statement may have been designed to draw US attention back to the deadlocked nuclear issue after Washington snubbed Pyongyang's offer of bilateral talks.
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