North Korea has accused neighbour South Korea of flying drones to its capital to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday that South Korean drones were detected in the night skies of Pyongyang on October 3 and Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The ministry accused the South of violating North Korea’s “sacred” sovereignty and threatening its security, and said its forces will prepare “all means of attack” and respond without warning if South Korean drones are detected in its territory again.
“The safety lock on our trigger has now been released,” the ministry said. “We will be prepared for everything and will be watching. The criminals should no longer gamble with the lives of their citizens.”
Asked about the North Korean claims during a parliamentary hearing, South Korean defence minister Kim Yong-hyun told lawmakers: “We have not done that.”
He said he was still trying to assess the situation and did not elaborate further.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr Kim was referring to South Korean military drones, or also drones possibly operated by South Korean civilians.
The South’s joint chiefs of staff later said in a statement that it could not confirm whether the North’s claims were true, without elaborating why. The joint chiefs warned the North to “exercise restraint and not act recklessly”.
“If the safety of our citizens is threatened in any way, our military will respond with stern and thorough retaliation,” it said.
Tensions between the rival Koreas have escalated in recent months as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ramped up weapons tests and threats and South Korea has responded by strengthening its joint military exercises with the United States.
Since May, North Korea has also sent thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic and other trash to drop on the South, in a bizarre psychological warfare campaign that worsened the animosity between the nations.
On Wednesday, North Korea said it will permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defence structures to cope with “confrontational hysteria” by South Korean and US forces.
North Korea’s military said in a statement on state media that it will “completely cut off roads and railways” linked to South Korea and “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defence structures”.
North Korea called its steps a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security” of the country and accused its rivals of “getting ever more reckless in their confrontational hysteria.”
North Korea cited what it called various military exercises in South Korea, the deployment of US strategic assets and its rivals’ rhetoric.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel