Embarrified Kim Jong-un's Small Drone, South Korean Military Sorry

Photo via Facebook US Korean Forces

JAKARTA - Intensive exercises with the United States are not a guarantee that the South Korean military will be sophisticated. The South Korean military has just been 'embarrated' by five North Korean drones.

The South Korean military apologized to the public for their failure to shoot down five North Korean drones that violated the country's airspace the previous day.

"We feel sorry that even though our military detected and tracked drones, we failed to shoot them down," said Lieutenant General Kang Shin-chul, chief operations director at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), in a statement.

Kang Shin-chul noted that the South Korean military has limitations in detecting and attacking small reconnaissance drones. But he believes his military force is able to counter threats from larger strike drones.

"But in the end, we have raised a lot of public concern because of the insufficiency in the posture of military readiness," said Kang.

To better address drone threats, the military plans to "aggressively" use attack assets, institutionate related routine exercises and combine platforms capable of shooting down drones without causing damage to civilians, according to Kang.

Kang also said the military was trying to secure "non-kinetic" attack capabilities, such as laser systems, as well as radar avoidance drones to increase overall anti-drone operational capabilities.

In addition, the military will encourage the early formation of drone units to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance operations to monitor enemy main military facilities.

On Monday, five North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles flew across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, with one flying to the northern part of Seoul.

Meanwhile, the South Korean military was alerted again the previous day due to the emergence of an unidentified object, which initially looked like a North Korean drone, in its northwestern region not far from the inter-Korean border.

The warplanes rushed to the scene, but the objects turned out to be a herd of birds.