Pyongyang claimed to have recovered the remains of a crashed South Korean military drone believed to have been on a propaganda mission in the latest confrontation between the two countries involving cross-border flying objects.
North Korea’s official Central News Agency (KСNA) released photos showing a damaged aircraft with wide V-shaped wings and wingtips. It said a joint investigation by the military and state security services concluded that the aircraft discovered on 13 October was the same type of drone that appeared at a military parade in South Korea earlier in October.
In light of the drone’s shape, the presumptive period of flight, the leaflet-scattering box fixed to the underpart of the drone’s fuselage, etc, it is quite likely that the drone is the one which scattered leaflets over the centre of Pyongyang Municipality. But the conclusion has not yet been drawn, KCNA said.
In a statement, the South Korean Defence Ministry said that “one-sided claims are not worth verifying, nor do they merit a response.” In addition, the government of the South declined to say whether such drones were launched, and if so whether they were flown by its military or civilians.
“If a violation of the DPRK’s territorial ground, air and waters by ROK’s military means is discovered and confirmed again, it will be regarded as a grave military provocation against the sovereignty of the DPRK and a declaration of war and an immediate retaliatory attack will be launched,” KCNA said.
However, South Korean lawmaker Yu Yong-weon made a statement saying the drones in the North Korean pictures resemble reconnaissance drones manufactured by South Korea’s Sungwoo Engineering and supplied to the South Korean military in 2023 as a response to a North Korean drone entering the no-fly zone around South Korea’s presidential office.
Tensions between the two Koreas have escalated since the North began launching balloons carrying rubbish across the border to the South in late May, to which Seoul responded by resuming loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts, angering Pyongyang.
