South Korea mobilizes fighter jets and helicopters after North Korean drone raid

five drones from North Korea crossed the border to the south and one of them got as far as north of the capital South Korea, in a dangerous incursion that immediately triggered a response from Seoul with fighters, helicopters and its own drones.

North Korean “unmanned aerial vehicles” have violated South Korean airspace in border areas around Gyeonggi province, the South Korean military said.

One of the drones flew as far north as Seoul and then back into North Korean space.

Seoul has deployed jet planes and attack helicopters, but 100 rounds fired from helicopters they failed to shoot down the drones.

A South Korean military official has said so since they had lost track of all dronesbut that they were no longer airborne.

The raid happens in the middle of an increase in tensions in the Korean peninsula, with the North conducting a record number missile tests this year.

The drones were seen crossing the border at around 10:30am local time (10:30pm Sunday Argentine time).

One of the South Korean warplanes involved in the operation, a KA-1 light attack aircraft, crashed later, but her two pilots escaped unharmed.

South Korean drones

The South Korean military then sent their drones to North Korea take pictures of military installations after detecting the infiltration of five drones allegedly coming from the Pyongyang regime into its territory.

In response, “the Republic of Korea Army (official name of South Korea) sent manned reconnaissance aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles to areas near the military demarcation line (the demarcation line between the two countries) and north of it,” the JCS added.

These aircraft “performed various operations, some reconnaissance, which consisted, for example, of photograph key enemy military installations“, the text details.

North Korea’s use of drones is a concern in the south, where several of them were discovered in 2014 and 2017.

“Our military will continue to respond resolutely to such North Korean provocations,” stressed the general staff in Seoul.

This Monday is the first incursion of North Korean drones into South Korean airspace. for five years.

Flights were temporarily suspended at Gimpo and Incheon international airports near Seoul for an hour at the request of the South Korean military, according to Yonhap.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the Seoul University of North Korean Studies, noted that this is the first time this has happened Flights are suspended in South Korea due to drones North Koreans. Even if, according to him, their job consisted more in espionage.

“Considering the low level of drone development North Koreans, there is little chance that they were equipped with the attack capabilities of modern weapons,” the professor explained.

With information from EFE and AFP

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