North Korea Condemns South Korea for Spying Drone Infiltration
JAKARTA - North Korea accused South Korea of flying a reconnaissance drone into its airspace last weekend and warned Seoul it would never be able to avoid responsibility for escalating tensions and would be forced to pay a heavy price.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) news agency on Saturday, January 10, also reported that Pyongyang also claimed a similar incident had occurred last September.
The General Staff of the North Korean Army, through a statement released on Friday (9/1), called South Korea's actions a serious violation of North Korean sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the South Korean Defense Ministry denied the North Korean claim and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for a thorough investigation.
The North Korean military said it had tracked a drone moving north over Kanghwa County, Incheon, near Seoul, last Sunday. The drone was allowed to cross the border before being brought down using a special electronic warfare device near the city of Kaesong.
According to KCNA, the drone equipped with the reconnaissance device recorded videos of a number of areas in North Korea. The results of the analysis show that the drone is designed to fly a total of 156 kilometers at an altitude of up to 300 meters for three hours and 10 minutes. KCNA also released photos of the drone.
Pyongyang also claimed that South Korean drones had collected data in North Korea in September, before being hit by a North Korean military electronic attack over Kaesong on their way back to the South.
In October 2024, North Korea also accused South Korea of carrying out a drone infiltration to spread a large number of "propaganda leaflets" over Pyongyang.
The North Korean military said South Korea had continued to carry out provocations since its change of government in June. Pyongyang also called Seoul an eternal enemy.
"Seoul has an enemy that is the most hostile to us, which will never change in nature, and will be the object we will definitely destroy if it attacks," the military statement said.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is known to have taken a number of steps to ease tensions between the Koreas, following the confrontational policy implemented by his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol.