N. Korea conducts massive air force exercise: sources

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea recently conducted a massive aerial
exercise near its border with China and around its western coast, a military
source said Tuesday, a drill rare in its scale for the energy-starved country.
"North Korea recently held a large-scale flight exercise over the West Sea,
involving its MIG-21 fighter jets and other combat aircraft," the source said,
asking not to be identified.
The remarks partly confirm an earlier claim by Carl Moeller, president of the
U.S. missionary group Open Doors U.S.A., that he had personally witnessed a
massive air force exercise near the Chinese border.
"I was just there at the border two weeks ago and noticed for the first time
North Korean fighter jets flying extensively near the border of China, and I was
surprised because typically those things don't occur there," Moeller was quoted
as saying by U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA).
Moeller claimed the flight exercise and various reports of worsening food
conditions in the North prove there is an "immense amount of destabilization" in
the country, according to the RFA report.
Many observers have suggested the communist nation may be undergoing serious
changes since the disappearance from public view of North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il, who is said to have suffered a stroke and has not been seen in public
since Aug. 14.
The military source, however, said the recent exercise does not indicate any sign
of destabilization in the North, noting the communist nation has held such
military drills in the past, though not regularly.
North Korean fighter jets took off on over 170 sorties a day for several days in
January while some even provoked the launch of South Korean interceptors by
approaching a tactical red line drawn 50 kilometers north of the inter-Korean
border, earlier reports said.