Yin Sung-hwan, the second deputy national security adviser, attends a National Security Council meeting at the government complex in Seoul in this Dec. 27, 2024 photo. Yonhap

The presidential office denied Thursday the opposition's claims that the National Security Council (NSC) had ordered the military to send a drone into North Korea last year.

Lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) claimed that a senior NSC official directly ordered the Drone Operations Command to infiltrate Pyongyang with a drone last October.

The presidential office said Yin Sung-hwan, the second deputy national security adviser, visited the command in March 2023 as part of an official inspection, and Drone Operations Commander Kim Yong-dae visited the NSC office five months later to discuss drone deployment strategies.

The office said the opposition lawmakers' linking of the NSC's work to strengthening military readiness was intended to stoke tension with the North and is an "absurd political offensive," urging the DP to refrain from putting national security into "unnecessary political strife."

In October, North Korea claimed to have discovered the remains of unmanned aerial vehicles carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets in its capital, accusing Seoul of sending the drones and warning of retaliation if such actions were repeated.

The military has maintained its stance of not confirming the alleged drone infiltration despite suspicions raised by the opposition bloc that the move was linked to preparations for President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law imposition on Dec. 3. (Yonhap)