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The heavily-trafficked airport that has the potential to be the site of a major military assault is far away from the ongoing turmoil in Israel, Syria, Iraq, or Ukraine.
Instead, the airport most susceptible to a rocket strike could be Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, South Korea.
Incheon is considered one of the best airports in the world. It won a 2014 Airport Service Quality Award from Airport Council International, its ninth win in as many years. The airport has a casino, a golf course, and a spa. It handled more than 41 million passengers in 2013.
With such a plethora of entertainment options, it is easy to forget that Incheon is located within striking range of the North Korean artillery pieces that ring the world’s longest militarized border.
“If North Korea decided to start a war with the U.S., where most of its verbal threats are, it would strike Incheon,” Steven Frischling, a blogger and aviation security analyst, told Business Insider. “Taking out Incheon and Gimpo [the second major South Korean airport] would be the first warning shot.”
“North Korea can easily hit it,” Frischling said. “They can easily target the airport far back from the DMZ.”
If North Korea were to attack Incheon, South Korea could do little to protect the aircraft or passengers at the airport.
“None of the aircraft in Korean or Japanese airlines have any defenses. It wouldn’t be surface-to-air missiles taking out the aircraft anyway; it would just be missiles and bombs taking out the airport,” Frischling said.
Incheon “would be a primary target if North Korea ever woke up and decided they wanted to do something,” he added.
Little suggests that North Korea is an immediate threat to shell the airport or to take potshots at planes flying out of South Korea’s international gateway. The situation remains tense in the Korean Peninsula — but an attack on Incheon is more of an operational possibility rather than an imminent scenario.
Still, North Korea, which has the world’s fifth-largest military by manpower, is prone to unexpected acts of aggression.
In May, North Korea fired at least one shell at a South Korean patrol ship. In 2010, North Korea came dangerously close to sparking a major escalation in the Peninsula when it shelled South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, killing two soldiers and sending dozens of civilians fleeing from their homes. The north routinely fires ballistic missiles into the sea.
North Korea has carried out limited operations against Incheon Airport in the past. In 2012, North Korea jammed the GPS navigation systems of airliners flying into the airport, although the flights managed to land without incident. South Korea claimed in January that North Korea carried out military exercises that simulated an attack on Incheon.
South Korea and North Korea technically still remain at war, as the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice that is still in place.
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