North Korea Says Drone Launched By South Violated Its Airspace In Sign Of Near Escalation (Photos)

Click to see full-size image. (Korean Central News Agency)

North Korea said on January 10 that South Korea flew another drone into its airspace on January 4, infringing on its sovereignty.

South Korea “committed another grave infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK (North Korea) by making its drone violate the DPRK’s airspace from the outset of the year,” said a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army in a statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The news agency said that the army detected and monitored the drone as it flew north from the airspace above the South Korean city of Incheon.

It added that the army used specialized electronic warfare equipment to disable the drone, causing it to crash 1,200 meters from the town of Muksan-ri on the outskirts of Kaesong near the inter-Korean border.

The drone was equipped with surveillance cameras to record “major” North Korean facilities, according to KCNA, which shared photos of the wreckage, including electronic parts, along with aerial photos of buildings that agency said the drone had taken.

“Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we cannot but mention about the fact that the ROK (South Korea) committed a provocative act of conducting surveillance and reconnaissance of our major objects by flying a drone into the territorial air of the DPRK in September last,” the statement added.

KCNA noted that on September 27 a drone, which took off from the South’s border city of Paju, fell into Jangphung county, Kaesong, after being jammed by the army’s electronic means. The agency also shared photos of the drone, some of its electronic parts, along photos allegedly taken by it.

South Korea “is the enemy most hostile towards us that can never be changed in nature, and the object to be certainly collapsed by us if it attacks,” the news agency said.

Pyongyang urged the international community to “clearly understand what is the root cause of escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula and inviting the danger of armed conflict,” it added, claiming that South Korea’s “military warmongers will surely be forced to pay a dear price for their unpardonable hysteria.

South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back denied any involvement in the drone incursions in September and earlier this week. Claiming that the drones were not models operated by the South Korean army, Ahn told Yonhap News that the North’s claims were “absolutely not true.”

North Korea’s accusations are a sign of a near escalation. Pyongyang has always responded to such acts in a way or another. The country could respond in kind, sending its own drones into South Korea. Such a move won’t spark a war, but could lead to a clash.

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