Korean DMZ Incident 1975

On July 8, 1975, an unidentified luminous orb performed sustained maneuvers directly over the Korean Demilitarized Zone — one of the world's most heavily monitored military boundaries — for 30 minutes. US Army 2nd Infantry Division personnel and South Korean Army units on the southern side, and reportedly North Korean Army observers on the northern side, all observed the craft. The craft's hovering over the DMZ created an initial alert situation in which both sides believed the intruding craft was a provocation by the other. UN Command headquarters at Yongsan initiated a special investigation to prevent potential military miscalculation. Electronic warfare systems on both sides of the DMZ experienced anomalies during the overflight. The UN Command investigation established that neither the US, South Korea, nor North Korea controlled the craft. The classification of the resulting report at Top Secret under UN Command authority — a relatively rare classification level — reflected the potential for the incident to inflame the already tense peninsula situation.