Five North Korean drones crossed South Korean airspace on Monday, prompting the South Korean military to deploy fighter jets and attack helicopters, the country’s Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said the South Korean military fired on the drones, but added that it could not confirm whether any drones were shot down.
Lee Seung-oh, a South Korean defense official, said four of the drones flew over Ganghwa Island and one flew over airspace north of the capital Seoul.
“This is a clear provocation and invasion of our airspace by North Korea,” Lee said during a briefing.
In response to the airspace violation, Lee said, the South Korean military sent its manned and unmanned reconnaissance assets to the inter-Korean border region, with some of them crossing into North Korean territory.
The assets conducted a reconnaissance mission, including footage of North Korean military installations, Lee added.
The South Korean military first detected the drones in the skies near the northwest city of Gimpo around 10:25 am local time on Monday, according to the country’s Ministry of Defense.
The last time a North Korean drone was detected below the inter-Korean border was in 2017, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. At the time, South Korea said it had recovered a North Korean drone that was spying on a US-built missile system in the country.
North Korea has aggressively stepped up its missile tests this year, often launching multiple weapons at once. He fired missiles on 36 separate days – the highest annual tally since Kim Jong Un took power in 2012.
More recently, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, according to South Korean officials. The missiles were fired from the Sunan area of ​​Pyongyang, in the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
The secretive country often tests its missiles this way, firing them at a high angle so they fall into the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
However, in October, it fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on a normal trajectory that flew past Japan for the first time in five years.
In November, it claimed to have launched a “new type” ICBM, the Hwasong-17, from Pyongyang International Airfield, a missile that could theoretically reach the mainland United States.
And last week, Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a top regime official, claimed in state media that North Korea was ready to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on a normal trajectory, a flight pattern. that could prove that weapons can threaten the continental United States.
US and South Korean experts have warned that Pyongyang may be preparing for a nuclear test, its first in more than five years.
North Korea has been building up its nuclear missile forces in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, stepping up its activities since the last of three meetings in 2019 between Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who did not failed to reach any agreement.
In October, Kim warned that his nuclear forces are fully prepared for “real war”.
“Our nuclear fighting forces… have again proved their full readiness for real war to bring enemies under their control,” Kim said in remarks reported by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Source: CNN Brasil
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