South Korean Military Drills Response to Pyongyang’s Drones Launch
Запуск южнокорейской баллистической ракеты малой дальности Hyunmoo II в ходе совместных военных учений США и Южной Кореи
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The South Korean military conducted drills to prepare for possible scenarios with North Korean drones crossing the border and to boost country’s defense capabilities, the South Korean Defense Ministry said on Thursday. “Under various hypothetic scenarios of enemy drone infiltrations, the drills proceeded with procedures to detect, identify, trace and intercept them,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) statement said, as quoted by South Korean news agency Yonhap. The drills were organized after the military failed to shoot down five North Korean drones that violated South Korean airspace on Monday. On Monday, a group of drones believed to be North Korean crossed the inter-Korean border. South Korea tried to shoot the drones down and scrambled fighter jets and helicopters to intercept them. One of the aircraft, a KA-1 light attack plane, reportedly crashed during takeoff. Four small North Korean drones flew near Ganghwado Island in South Korea, and another flew up to the northern region of the metropolitan agglomeration, including Seoul. Yonhap later said that one drone managed to return back to the North, while the remaining four disappeared from radars. The South Korean Defense Ministry called the violation of the country’s airspace by North Korean drones a provocation and pledged to respond.
