North Korea’s defense ministry said investigators had “proved” South Korea sent a drone over its capital, Pyongyang, to drop propaganda leaflets, which the South has denied.
Tit-for-tat propaganda flights, largely with balloons, over each other’s territory has inflamed tensions between North and South Korea in recent months, with the North’s recent complaint of drone flights by South Korea raising fears of conflict.
The North Korean ministry announced the results of its investigation after saying that South Korea flew a drone over Pyongyang at least three times this month. It also published photos of what it described as a crashed South Korean military drone.
The ministry said it had analyzed the flight control program from the remains of the drone that crashed after intruding on Oct. 8, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported.
The North Korean news agency said the analysis uncovered more than 230 flight plans and flight logs since June 2023, including a plan to scatter “political motivational rubbish.”
An Oct. 8 record showed that the drone had set off from the South’s border island of Baengnyeongdo late at night and released leaflets over the foreign and defense ministry buildings in Pyongyang a few hours later, according to the news agency.
The results “clearly proved the most vulgar and shameless provocative nature of the ROK military gangsters who have persistently evaded the responsibility for the illegal intrusion by their drone into the sky above the capital city of the DPRK,” said a spokesperson at the North’s defense ministry, as cited by KCNA.
The Republic of Korea, or ROK, is the official name for South Korea, while the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.
North Korea also warned that “the source of all misfortunes and provocations will disappear forever by the merciless offensive” by the North if South Korea again infringes upon its sovereignty.
South Korea has denied sending drones over North Korea but suggested that private anti-North Korean activists might have done so.
The South’s military accused North Korea of sending its drones over the South.
“North Korea has threatened our safety by infiltrating multiple drones into our airspace on more than 12 occasions in the past 10 years. Its unilateral claim without self-reflection is shameless,” said the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, or JCS.
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Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement on Monday questioning how South Korea would react if North Korea sent a drone over Seoul scattering leaflets critical of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
“Under such a situation, I’d like to see once how the dirty curs in Seoul bark. The world may also be curious about it,” she said, as cited by KCNA.
Last week, North Korean balloons carrying leaflets criticizing Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee landed in the presidential compound.
In response, the South’s military vowed to take corresponding measures should North Korean drones enter South Korean airspace.
North Korea blew up its roads connected to South Korea in early October in a demonstration of its anger and rejection of any hope of improving relations between the two Koreas.
At the same time, the North ordered its army units near the border to be ready to launch strikes.
North Korea’s ally Russia said on Oct. 14 that South Korea should refrain from “further provocations” in response to North Korea’s drone accusations, warning that it would exacerbate tension and could lead to armed confrontations.
Edited by Mike Firn.