SEOUL: South Korea said on Saturday it had scrambled military jetslink> to intercept a Chineseaircraft link> that hadentered the South’s air defence territory, less that two months after Seoulofficially lodged a complaint over another incursion.

The Chinese aircraft was believed to be a military reconnaissance plane andspent nearly four hours in the Korea Air Defence Identification Zonelink>,the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

It would be at least the third such incident this year. South Koreasummoned the Chinese ambassador in February to formally complain.

China’s defence ministrylink> did not respondimmediately to a request for comment on Saturday, the start of a longholiday weekend.

The foreign ministry in Beijing said in February the flights werecompletely in line with international law and practice and that “airdefence identification zones are not territorial air space”.

China’s air force is increasingly active far from the country’s shores,including flying missions into the Western Pacific that often pass througha southern Japanese island chain and around self-ruled Taiwan, claimed byBeijing as its own.