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N. Korean drone sent back after infiltrating S. Korea

January 13, 2016

SEOUL (Yonhap) — A North Korean drone briefly infiltrated the border with South Korea on Wednesday before returning home upon the southern military’s warning shots, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The unidentified aerial vehicle appeared in the skies above a South Korean front-line military observatory post in the western part of the border at 2:10 p.m., the JCS said.

“The military responded with warning broadcasts and shots before the vehicle immediately returned to the North,” the JCS said in a brief release to the media.

The mini-size drone flew dozens of meters into the South Korean side of the military demarcation line in a few seconds before the South military took counteractions, the JCS said. The South’s military fired some 20 machine gun shots.

The drone dispatch is the latest in the North’s military actions taken after its surprise nuclear test on Jan. 6.

In retaliation for what the North claims was a successful hydrogen bomb test, Seoul resumed its anti-North loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, putting pressure on the communist country where outside information is tightly controlled.

In a counteraction, Pyongyang also started its own propaganda broadcasts at the border area last week.

The North has also scattered propaganda leaflets within South Korea, demanding a halt to the broadcasts and criticizing President Park Geun-hye.

The drone seems to have infiltrated the tensely-guarded border in order to surveil the South’s military posture amid the escalating tensions.

The North has previously flown drones across the border when inter-Korean military tensions shot up in August following its landmine provocations that maimed two South Korean soldiers.