South Korean army apologizes for failing to shoot down North Korean drones

the army of South Korea today publicly apologized for failing to shoot down five North Korean drones that infiltrated southern airspace on Monday and said it would redouble its capabilities to try to repel such actions in the future.

“We regret the fact that although our army detected and tracked the drones, we were unable to shoot them down,” Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) chief operating officer Kang Shin-chul said in a statement.

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

Kang said South Korea’s capabilities to detect and destroy reconnaissance drones are limited when they have wingspans of less than three meters.

“As a result, the lack of preparation of the army has generated a lot of concern among the population,” he added.

On Monday, five drones crossed the inter-Korean border and one of them managed to fly over the north of seoul before returning to North Korean territory.

The other four finally lost track on the border island of Ganghwa after five hours of trying to shoot them down without success.

The South Korean lieutenant general explained today that the army plans to “forcefully” deploy new assets capable of shooting down drones without harming civilians (such as laser systems) and to establish regular interception maneuvers.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol vowed on Monday to strengthen the country’s resources in this area, blaming his predecessor, the liberal Moon Jae-in, for failing to implement regular exercises during his tenure.

In retaliation for this incident, seoul sent several of its unmanned aircraft into North Korean territory on Monday to take pictures of military installations.

In that sense, Kang said today that a specific unit will be established in charge of sending drones to North Korea for surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

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.