SEOUL (Reuters) – Five North Korean drones violated South Korean airspace on Monday – a first since 2017 – triggering the mobilization of South Korean fighters and attack helicopters in response to what the South’s military -Korean called it a “deliberate provocation”.
“This violation of our airspace by the North is a deliberate provocation,” Lee Seung-o, head of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a press briefing.
One of the five drones approached the South Korean capital Seoul and the others flew along the west coast. South Korean aircraft were therefore mobilized “to shoot them down”, after warning shots, while a South Korean reconnaissance plane was dispatched to take photos in North Korea, in response to this intrusion, said explained Lee Seung-o.
This official did not specify whether one of the drones could have been shot down, but according to the South Korean press agency Yonhap, the South Korean aircraft fired around 100 without managing to bring down the drones sent by Pyongyang. .
Also according to Yonhap, quoting the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the drones was able to return to North Korea while the South Korean army lost track of the other four.
These drones, with a wingspan of about two meters but whose characteristics or equipment have not been further specified, arrived in South Korean airspace after flying over the demarcation line (LDM) defined between Korea South and North Korea during the armistice in 1953. They were detected near the town of Gimpo, in northwestern South Korea, around 10:25 a.m. (01:25 GMT).
This is the first confirmation of a North Korean drone incursion into South Korea since 2017, when a plane sent by Pyongyang and suspected of carrying out a spy mission crashed into a mountain near of the border.
This drone incursion comes as North Korea has increased missile fire in recent weeks.
A South Korean transport ministry official earlier said flights from Incheon and Gimpo international airports had been halted for about an hour at the request of the military.
The suspension began at 1:08 p.m. (0408 GMT) in Gimpo and 1:22 p.m. in Incheon and outbound flights resumed around 2:10 p.m., the official told Reuters without providing further details.
(Written by Joyce Lee and Hyonhee Shin, French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Blandine Hénault)