South Korea mobilizes fighter jets and helicopters after North Korean drone shipment that crossed the border

Five drones of North Korea crossed to South Korea on Monday and Seoul responded with attack planes and helicopters and opening fire to try to shoot down the North Korean aircraft, the South Korean military said.

As part of its response, the army of South Korea It also sent surveillance planes into the North to photograph its military installations, a South Korean military official said.

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“This is a clear act of provocation by the North that violates our airspace,” Lee Seung-o, a South Korean official on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing.

One of the five North Korean drones flew near the South Korean capital, Seoul, and the others flew near the west coast.

Lee said that the army South Korea “operated assets to shoot down” the drones.

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He did not say whether any drones had been shot down, but the Yonhap news agency later said that the South Korean army fired around 100 shots but failed to shoot down any. Lee said South Korea initially fired “warning shots” when it first detected the drones. One of the drones was known to have returned to North Koreawhile South Korea lost track of the other four, Yonhap reported, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

North Korea does not have a channel for inquiries from the media South Korea and his state media did not mention any drones.

reconnaissance planes South Korea flew north to take action photos corresponding to the drone flights of North Koreasaid Lee, suggesting that North Korean drones were also intended for reconnaissance.

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South Korea tracked drones crossing from North Korea over the so-called Military Demarcation Line between the two countries after spotting them in the skies over the western city of Gimpo at around 10:25 a.m. local time (0125 GMT), the military had previously said.

The drones They are the first confirmed to have come from the isolated neighbor since 2017, when a North Korean drone believed to be on a spy mission crashed and was found on a mountain near the border. In 2014, a North Korean drone was discovered on a border island in South Korea.

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Lee said that the North Korean drones on Monday were small, about two meters, but he gave no further details, including what equipment they were wearing, if any.

The relationships between North Korea and the ally of the United States, South Korea, they’ve been bad for decades, but recently they’ve become even more tense after a new conservative government took power in Seoul and Pyongyang continues its nuclear and missile programs.

South Korean and US forces have responded to a record number of North Korean missile tests this year with intensified military exercises.. North Korea views such exercises as preparations for an invasion.

These have been faced with more tests and exercises of North Korea, including rare sorties by fighter jets near the border.

The Ministry of Transport of South Korea It previously said that flights out of its Incheon and Gimpo airports were suspended following a request by the military. The suspension began at 0408 GMT in Gimpo and 0422 GMT in Incheon and lasted for about an hour before departures resumed, a ministry official told Reuters.

While trying to counter the drones, a South Korean KA-1 light attack plane crashed shortly after takeoff from its base in Wonju in the east of the country, a defense ministry official said. Its two pilots managed to escape before the crash and are in the hospital.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.