nobody wrote:

Nop, the claim was that the Korean jets were equipped with spying
equipment (cameras), and as I recall, years later, some UN/ICAO report
agreed with the soviet's claim. (still not a valid reason to shoot it down).

Are you saying the Soviet didn't originally claim they didn't know it
was a passenger plane? Or, are you saying they knew it was a commercial
747 and also that it had cameras, before they shot it down? How did they
know this?