] As US Secretary of State Colin Powell readied for a
] three-nation jaunt through Asia this weekend, ending with
] the inauguration Tuesday of new South Korean president
] Roh Myun-hoon, North Korea sent a fighter jet for a
] two-minute romp into South Korean airspace.
]
] The incursion above the Yellow Sea, rebuffed by South
] Korean jets, is unusual. Generally, it is North Korean
] naval vessels that penetrate the tip of the Yellow Sea in
] tests of will with the South.
]
] The MiG-19 jet probe, coming just days after the North
] threatened to pull out of the armistice that has governed
] the two Koreas for 50 years, is regarded here as yet
] another in an escalating set of provocations designed to
] push the US into one-on-one talks.