By JUNG SUNG-KI
SEOUL — South Korea is announcing next week that it will extend its air defense identification zone in response to China’s declaration of a new air defense zone overlapping the country’s southern islands and underwater rock.
President Park Geun-hye held talks Dec. 6 with US Vice President Joe Biden here to discuss the matter.
According to the presidential office, Biden, who had received no concession from China on its new air defense zone, appreciates Seoul’s plan to expand its air defense zone, drawn in 1951 by the UN Command in the middle of the Korean War.
“The two sides agreed to continue to discuss the matter,” Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se said after the meeting.
In a speech at Yonsei University here, Biden reiterated the US government doesn’t recognize China’s unilateral move announced Nov. 23.
“We do not recognize the zone,” Biden told students. “It will have no effect on American operations.”
He called on South Korea, China and Japan to “lower the temperature” to resolve the issue. “The possibility of miscalculation, a mistake, is real,” he said.
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