WW IV.0

South Korea sends drones to Kim Jong Un’s airspace in unprecedented move

Jon Herskovitz and Shinhye Kang - Bloomberg News (TNS)

South Korea sent drones across the border into North Korea for the first time on Monday, an unprecedented tit-for-tat military move after Kim Jong Un’s regime dispatched five unmanned aerial vehicles into its air space.

The exchange of drones, which briefly stopped flights from taking off at major airports near Seoul, came as Kim opened a major political meeting to set security, economic and political policy for the coming year, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday. He has spent the past year improving his atomic arsenal, showing no interest in returning to nuclear disarmament talks that have been stalled for three years.

Kim’s regime sent five drones across the border on Monday, the first time he has done so in more than five years. The first one crossed the border at 10:25 a.m. and returned after flying for about three hours. Four more were detected Monday afternoon and later vanished from radar, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Yonhap News Agency said one may have come into the Seoul area to possibly take photos of the presidential office. South Korea’s military said it responded by scrambling fighter jets and military helicopters, with local media including Yonhap saying about 100 shots were fired at North Korean drones that broached its airspace near western coastal islands.

South Korea later deployed manned and unmanned reconnaissance assets to areas close to the border and into North Korea that conducted reconnaissance and photographed military facilities, the JCS said in a statement. The move is consistent with South Korea’s strategy over the past year to respond to North Korean provocations with similar maneuvers.

Kim has found space to ratchet up tensions as the U.S. and its allies focuses on Russia’s war in Ukraine. The moves increase the risks for the first major deadly clash in years, such as when North Korea bombarded the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong with artillery in 2010.

Kim has been modernizing his inventory of missiles over the past several years to make them easier to hide, quicker to deploy and more difficult to shoot down. This year, he has tested missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons to U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, as well as firing off intercontinental ballistic missiles with ranges to hit the American mainland. South Korea has said it's expecting Kim to test a nuclear bomb in the near future.

North Korea on Nov. 18 test-fired an ICBM with Kim’s daughter on hand for the launch, marking her first official appearance in state media. The move signaled that there’s another generation ready to take over the Cold War’s last continuous family dynasty and it will depend on nuclear weapons for its survival.

Kim has used year-end, multiday political events to make major speeches at their conclusion. In his opening comments, “he stressed the need to lay out more exciting and confident struggle policies based on valuable facts that achieved practical advance while persevering all difficulties,” KCNA said.

(With assistance from Sangmi Cha.)


©2022 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. 

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

North Korea Sends Drones Into South Korea in Brazen Incursion

 
December 26, 2022 
William Gallo

 A suspected North Korean drone is viewed at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, June 21, 2017. South Korea says Dec. 26, 2022, it fired warning shots after North Korean drones violated the South’s airspace. 

(Lee Jung-hoon/Yonhap via AP, File)

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —

North Korea sent several small drones into South Korean airspace Monday, Seoul officials said, prompting South Korea’s military to fly its own unmanned surveillance aircraft north of the sensitive border.

South Korea also scrambled fighter jets and attack helicopters to respond to the North Korean incursion but failed to bring down any of the drones, according to South Korean military officials.

While one of the drones returned to North Korea, the status of four others is not known, said South Korean military officials who spoke to reporters on background late Monday.

It’s not clear if the North Korean drones were armed, though South Korean officials say they were small – with a wingspan of only about 2 meters.

North Korea has sent tiny, crudely built UAVs into South Korea for apparent surveillance missions at least four other times since 2014, though this is the first reported incursion in more than five years.

Monday’s incident appeared particularly brazen, as the North Korean drones were reported to have flown around populated areas of South Korea for much of the day.

The first North Korean UAV crossed the border near South Korea’s northeast island of Ganghwa at 10:25 am local time and was quickly followed by the others, according to South Korean military officials.

Four of the drones flew near Ganghwa, while the other flew as far as the northern part of the Seoul metropolitan area, which is approximately 50 kilometers away, officials added.

As of 8:00 pm local time, there was no indication that any of the drones had been captured. There were no reports of damage in South Korea.

According to South Korea’s transport ministry, aircraft departures were temporarily halted at South Korea’s main Incheon Airport and the smaller Gimpo Airport, both of which are close to the reported North Korean intrusions.

SEE ALSO:
North Korea Reportedly Exploited Itaewon Tragedy in Hacking Attempt

The incident is likely to raise questions about South Korea’s ability to prevent North Korean drone incursions and whether the South Korean military acted quickly enough to stop the unmanned vehicles.

According to a South Korean military background briefing, South Korea fired about 100 shots but failed to bring down any of the North Korean drones.

One of the South Korean aircraft involved in the response – a KA-1 light attack aircraft – crashed east of Seoul, though officials have not explained why. Neither pilot in the plane was injured, officials said.

In response, South Korea’s military said it sent a drone into North Korea on a reconnaissance mission. The South Korean drone reached about as far into the North as the North Korean drones intruded into the South, before returning south of the border, officials added.

North Korea Claims Spy Satellite Progress, Posts Imagery of Seoul, Incheon

In a statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned North Korea’s “clear act of provocation” and vowed the South would continue to respond “thoroughly and firmly” to North Korea.

This is the first known North Korean drone incursion into South Korea since 2017, when a suspected North Korean drone mounted with a camera took photos of a U.S. anti-missile battery before crashing on its way back to the North.

In 2014, a similar North Korean unmanned aerial vehicle took pictures of military installations and even the residence of South Korea’s president before crashing near the border.

South Korean officials say the drones identified Monday appeared to be similar to those used in the 2014 and 2017 incidents.

North Korea has not commented on the incursion, but in the past has denied sending spy drones into South Korea.

North Korea has steadily ramped up tensions this year, launching a record number of missiles and conducting artillery shelling in sensitive border areas.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has responded with corresponding shows of military might, often within a few hours of the North Korean provocations.