China says crashed aircraft may be North Korean

Reports say it was a North Korean military aircraft flown by a pilot trying to flee the poor and isolated country.

Investigators are probing a crash involving an unidentified small aircraft in northeast China, state media said, amid reports today that it could have been a North Korean fighter plane. China's official Xinhua news agency said the plane, which crashed in Liaoning province's Fushun county, "might be" a North Korean jet, citing unnamed Chinese government sources. "The aircraft crashed into a civilian makeshift house, leaving no Chinese dead or injured. The pilot died on the spot," the report said, adding that Beijing was "communicating" with Pyongyang on the incident. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the aircraft appeared to be a North Korean fighter jet and that the pilot had been killed, citing intelligence sources. Yonhap quoted a source as saying the pilot of the plane, possibly a Soviet-era MiG-15, may have lost his way while attempting to fly to Russia to escape from North Korea. China, an ally of Pyongyang, has a repatriation pact with North Korea, which could have been why the pilot chose Russia as a destination, the report added. Photos that appeared to show the crash site, posted on the internet, showed what looked like a fighter plane with the North Korean flag painted on the body of the jet.

South Korea's military said the plane was more likely a MiG-21, citing radar detection by its air force of the aircraft leaving a military airbase in the North Korean city of Sinuiju, near the border with China. The number of North Korean soldiers defecting from the impoverished, reclusive state has increased in recent months as food shortages deepen, Yonhap said.

* AFP