The drone war: the new protagonist in the eternal tension between the two Koreas

Tension is rising again on the Korean peninsula. This time, after seoul detect five North Korean drones flying over its airspace and respond by sending its own aircraft to photograph Northern military installations.

SIGHT: North Korean drones arrive in the territory of South Korea in the midst of an increase in tension between the two countries

At about 10:25 a.m., the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected four drones flying over the province of Gyenonggi and a fifth doing the same north of Seoul.

This led to the South Korean forces they will make sound warnings and deploy fighters and combat helicopters that in turn fired more than 100 times against the droneswithout managing to knock down any.

The episode caused both Seoul airports to suspend all their flights for the daya decision that is unprecedented as detailed by the professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, Yang Moo-jin, to the French chain RFI.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap also reported that a KA-1 light fighter crashed in Hoengseong province during operations against drones.

North Korea has between 300 and 1,000 low-tech drones, according to military sources. Although on this occasion the South Korean forces could not determine if the unmanned aircraft were combat or carried out espionage missions.

The drone alert prompted South Korea to issue audible warnings, deploy ships and helicopters, and fire warning shots at the drones. (AFP Agency /)

endless tension

The drone episode It comes just three days after North Korea launched two missiles into the Sea of ​​Japan.reported by the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

These launches were just days after the Kim Jong-un regime announced that it had tested a rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite and was testing a new type of engine to improve its long-range missiles, the EFE news agency reported.

Before the last shipment of drones, South Korea responded hours later by displaying “manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to areas near and north of the Military Demarcation Line (the dividing line between the two countries)”according to a statement from the JCS.

The ships “carried out different operations, some of them reconnaissance, which consisted, for example, in photograph key enemy military installations”, adds the command announcement.

This new escalation is in accordance with a year marked by a record number of ballistic tests carried out by the North that have been responded to with major military maneuvers and deployments of strategic assets by the South together with the United States.

Such military tests have been viewed by North Korea as an invasion preparation.

The drone episode comes three days after North Korea conducted two ballistic tests, firing missiles into the Sea of ​​Japan. (KCNA via Reuters/)

increasingly dangerous scenario

It is not the first time that the South has detected North Korean drones in its territory. The last episode of this type occurred in 2017.when Seoul launched an alert by locating unmanned ships in its airspace that were carrying out espionage tasks.

Three years before, in 2014, South Korea also detected several drones North Koreans on their side of the border.

“It is true that it is not the first time, but several years ago there were no known raids. This is an escalation. North Korea, especially this year, has tested missiles, air raids, everything. He is testing all the weapons he has and in this case, given the great role that drones have taken in the war in Ukraine, he saw it necessary to test his own. I fear that this could lead to further escalation, if South Korea sends other drones we could be at the beginning of a very dangerous scenario.”, he comments to Trade the internationalist specializing in Asia and professor at the San Marcos Carlos Aquino University.

The expert also estimates that this could increase “the chances of this escalating into an armed conflict”because the Yoon Suk-yeol government, unlike its predecessor, Moon Jae-in, has adopted a more active policy in the face of provocations from the North.

As for the constant skirmishes this year, unprecedented throughout the conflict on the peninsula, Aquino believes that it is due to two main factors. “First, North Korea does not find a ‘friendly’ government in the South, but rather a confrontational one. Second, (the North Koreans) are emboldened by their ever-closer friendship with China and RussiaThey are two great partners who assure him that the Security Council will not do anything to them and that, in addition, they supply him with oil, gas or luxury items. We find that this axis formed between Russia, China and North Korea is consolidated in the face of the alliance of the United States, Japan and South Korea.“, Explain.

Source: Elcomercio