North Korean Intercept Raises Tensions

U.S. officials are considering a formal protest and may provide armed fighter escorts for all future missions off North Korea after four of its aircraft intercepted an American reconnaissance plane that the Pentagon contends was flying over international waters.

Senior State Department officials say the intercept, which occurred Sunday, was "obviously a provocative act," with one official saying it was a further effort by the North to raise tensions amid fears that the North could make nuclear bombs within months.

However, because the U.S. and North Korea have only limited diplomatic contacts, it has not yet been decided whether the protest from Washington will be lodged by the State Department or the Pentagon, according to CBS News State Department Reporter Charles Wolfson.

In the incident, four North Korean jets intercepted the U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Sea of Japan, one of them coming within 50 feet of the American aircraft, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

Officials say the fighters flew alongside the American plane for 20 minutes and that the ground controller for the North Korean jets ordered the pilots to arm their air-to-air missiles but not to fire.

One jet used its radar to identify the plane as a target, but there was no hostile fire in the incident Sunday, Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said in Washington.

Another pilot rocked his wings as if ordering the RC-135 to follow him, but the American aircraft continued on its route and the fighters, probably low on fuel, broke off.

It was the first such incident since April 1969 when a North Korean plane shot down a U.S. Navy EC-121 surveillance plane, killing all 31 Americans aboard, Davis said.

U.S. officials say the RC-135, which goes by the code name Cobra Ball, was more than 100 miles off the coast of North Korea, well into international air space, and at the outer range of the North Korean jets, which apparently had been positioned at a coastal airfield for the specific purpose of intercepting the American plane.

The RC-135 typically has 17 crew members and is loaded with electronic receivers. The purpose of its missions is to monitor North Korean missile tests and activity at nuclear facilities.

U.S. officials are certain that the incident was not a case of hot-dogging by North Korean pilots but a well-planned operation ordered by North Korean leaders.

North Korean complaints about reconnaissance flights by U.S. planes had grown more frequent before the incident. On Monday, North Korea called its confrontation with the United States "extremely acute."

North Korea did not comment on the incident. Its state-run media said the launch Tuesday of an annual U.S.-South Korean military exercise was preparation for an attack. The "Foal Eagle" exercise, which has been held since 1961, ends April 2.

"This Foal Eagle exercise is escalating the danger of armed clashes on the Korean Peninsula," said Minju Joson, a North Korean newspaper.

"If the eagle swoops down on us, a nuclear war will break out and it is clear that the whole Korean nation will not escape nuclear holocaust," said the report, which was monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The interception fit a pattern of recent North Korean actions that could be an effort to pressure the United States into negotiations.

North Korea test-fired a missile into the sea off its east coast on the eve of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's inauguration last week.

On Feb. 20, a North Korean MiG-19 warplane crossed over the South's western sea border, but quickly retreated after South Korean jets flew to the area.

Last week, U.S. officials said North Korea had restarted a nuclear reactor at the center of a suspected weapons program. The 5-megawatt reactor could yield enough plutonium for an atomic bomb in about a year, experts say.

"Ever since the nuclear issue surfaced, North Korea has been taking steps to increase tension and to show its hostility," Lee Suk-soo, a professor at the National Defense College in Seoul, said Tuesday.

The current nuclear dispute began in October when U.S. officials said the North acknowledged it had a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement.

Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments that were part of the agreement, and North Korea responded by moving to reactivate frozen nuclear facilities and withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The Bush administration has insisted that the building crisis caused by the startup of North Korea's nuclear program can be handled by diplomacy, but increasingly it is edging into a military confrontation.

Even before Sunday's intercept, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved a major buildup of U.S. forces in range of North Korea, ordering 24 long-range bombers to the Pacific island of Guam.

North Korea justifies its stance by claiming that it has a right to feel threatened by the United States, since the Bush administration considers it part of an "axis of evil," and has articulated a doctrine of preemptive use of force.

The North wants direct talks with the United States, a non-aggression treaty and, probably, more aid.

But Washington, preparing for a possible war against Iraq, says it will not be blackmailed into concessions and that North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons are a multilateral issue. The U.N. Security Council is expected to debate the matter, and could impose sanctions — a move that North Korea has warned would be treated as an act of war.

In an interview with 14 U.S. newspapers, President Bush repeated the U.S. stance that the situation can be resolved with diplomacy.

According to The Baltimore Sun, Mr. Bush said Monday that while the military option has not been taken off the table, it would be a last resort in dealing with the country's moves toward nuclear weapons production.

Asked how successful diplomatic efforts have been, Mr. Bush said: "It's in process. If they don't work diplomatically, they'll have to work militarily. And military option is our last choice. Options are on the table, but I believe we can deal with this diplomatically. I truly do."