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| Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, right, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum participate in a plenary session of the National Defense Committee at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
North Korea's unmanned aircraft could not film presidential office clearly: JCS
By Kang Seung-woo
The South Korean military will expand annual air defense exercises in the wake of North Korean drone infiltrations into the South's airspace late last year, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Thursday.
"The South Korean military plans to conduct a joint air defense exercise featuring all units four times a year," a JCS officer told reporters. The training has been held biannually until now.
The JCS plans to operate drones that match the size of North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that crossed the Military Demarcation Line and conduct training drills to integrate and operate all available forces in the South Korean military.
On Dec. 26, 2022, North Korea flew five drones across the inter-Korean border for the first time in five years and one of them returned to the North after entering a no-fly zone near the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul. However, the military lost track of the other four drones after they moved westward from Ganghwa County, west of Seoul.
"We will shift to a system of detecting drones early, containing and striking them in the air," the JCS officer added.
Also, South Korea will establish a drone unit to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance operations on North Korea's key military facilities as President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged in response to last year's drone infiltration.
The JCS said North Korea sent drones that displayed improved performance, but the unmanned aircraft probably had a limited ability to film the presidential office.
"We estimate that the drones that infiltrated South Korea this time have improved performance compared to the previous ones," the JCS said in a report to the National Assembly's National Defense Committee.
According to the JCS, one North Korean drone crashed on Baengnyeong Island in March 2014 and another was found on Inje, Gangwon Province in June 2017.
"Compared to the 2014 drone, the 2017 version had a bigger engine and wingspan, while it went on a long-distance flight. Based on that information, we assess that the performance of the latest one may have been improved," a JCS officer told reporters.
The officer also said unlike the previous drones, both of which crashed while in flight, the safe return of the drone that is believed to have taken photos of the presidential office helped reach that conclusion.
According to the JCS, the North Korean drones are believed to have been fitted with cameras facing straight down. The 2014 drone was embedded with a Nikon camera, while the 2017 drone had a Sony camera.
However, the JCS said although the drone entered a no-fly zone surrounding the presidential office, it would not have filmed the area clearly due to its cruising altitude and the performance levels of the cameras used in the previous North Korean drones.
The JCS said the latest drone infiltration was aimed at testing the South Korean military's response capabilities, while creating chaos in the South.
Saying that it did regard the infiltration as a non-emergency situation that would not require a swift response, the JCS officially admitted that cooperation was insufficient, such as a lack of active information sharing between units in responding to the drone intrusion. It also said the military failed to be completely ready to defend against drone threats.
Meanwhile, the two rival political parties locked horns over the issue.
Citing the North Korean drones' violation of the no-fly zone, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) insisted that Kim Yong-hyun, the head of the Presidential Security Service, and Kim Sung-han, the national security adviser, attend a plenary session of the National Defense Committee.
However, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) dismissed the call, saying that officials of the presidential office are subject to the House Steering Committee. It also argued that the opposition party launched an excessive political offensive over national security.
The conflict between the two sides continued during the session, resulting in the suspension of the meeting 30 minutes after it stared at 10 a.m.
One day after the North Korean drones' infiltration into South Korean airspace, the South also sent drones across the border into the North, which led the United Nations Command to conclude, Thursday, that both South and North Korea constituted a violation of the armistice.
In response, the South Korean defense ministry defended its move as the exercise of its right to "self-defense," stressing that right is not restricted by the armistice.
