China could send fighter jets to escort Kim Jong-un when North Korea’s Air Force One travels through its airspace for a meeting in Singapore with US President Donald Trump, a South Korean military source said, as Beijing tries to boost its influence over the regime ahead of the summit, South China Morning Post reports.
“Escorting [a head of a state] with jets is one of the highest security protocols that the air force can provide,” a source with the South Korean Air Force told the South China Morning Post.
“If China does provide the escort, it may be a message directed at the US-ROK alliance that China is strongly backing up the Kim regime,” the source said, referring to South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
