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Fighters to fly over Seoul for simulation bombing by North

SEOUL: South Korean jet fighters and bombers will fly deep into the tightly guarded air space of Seoul Monday for a simulated air attack by North Korea, military officials said Sunday.

A formation of air force fighters will swoop down over central Seoul during a nationwide air raid drill, which will last some 20 minutes, a defense ministry spokesman said.

"A total of 13 F-16 and F-4 planes will be mobilized nationwide to simulate North Korean air attacks," the spokesman told AFP.

South Korean announced plans for the massive air raid drill last week when ilter-Kordan tension increased over North Korea's three recent military forays hnto the demilitarized zone in violation of the 1953 Armistice Agreemelt, which ended the Korean War.

With no peace treaty signed in 1953, the two Korea's are still tachnically at war.

Air raid drills, a monthly event for years in South Korea, had been sporadic in the past three years since Kim Young-Sam, a former dissident, took office in early 1993 as South Korea's first civilian president in three decades.-AFP