A US surveillance aircraft has flown over South Korea earlier this week, an aviation tracker said Friday, on an apparent mission to monitor North Korea.

The US Air Force's E-8C, or JSTARS, was spotted in the skies over the central part of South Korea and the metropolitan area the previous day, No Callsign tweeted.

The flight came days before the North's founding anniversary of the communist government, which falls on Sept. 9.

As a platform for airborne command and control, surveillance and reconnaissance, the E-8C is known to be capable of closely monitoring North Korea's troops and equipment movements, including missiles and artillery guns. (Yonhap)