Azernews.Az

By Alemat Aliyeva

North Korea on Saturday accused South Korea of violating its sovereignty through drone incursions in September last year and earlier this week, warning that Seoul should be prepared to “pay a high price” for what it described as a serious provocation.

South Korea’s defence ministry rejected the accusation, saying its military did not operate drones on the dates cited by Pyongyang.

In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army described South Korea as “the most hostile enemy” and accused it of pursuing provocative actions while publicly calling for dialogue.

“The Republic of Korea should be ready to pay a high price for having committed another provocation of infringing on the sovereignty of the DPRK with a drone,” the spokesperson said, referring to South Korea and North Korea by their official names.

According to the statement, North Korean forces on 4 January detected and tracked an aerial target moving northward from the skies above Ganghwa County, near Incheon, before striking it with electronic warfare systems. The drone was forced to crash in Muksan-ri, close to the border city of Kaesong, KCNA reported.

Pyongyang also alleged that a similar incident occurred on 27 September, when a drone that had taken off from Paju, a South Korean border city, fell in Jangphung County near Kaesong after being disabled by North Korean electronic countermeasures. The drone had allegedly infiltrated airspace over Phyongsan County in North Hwanghae Province before turning back, the report said.

The North claimed that the drone downed earlier this week was equipped with surveillance devices and was designed to conduct reconnaissance over a distance of around 156 kilometres during a flight lasting more than three hours.

KCNA released photographs said to show drone debris, recording equipment and images allegedly captured by the unmanned aircraft. The report likened South Korea to “a perfect copy of Kiev’s lunatics”, drawing a comparison with Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Pyongyang further alleged that the drones had passed through areas where South Korean radar and anti-drone systems are deployed, insisting that the South Korean military was directly responsible for the incursions.

Tensions between the two Koreas have remained high in recent months, with both sides trading accusations of military provocation amid a prolonged breakdown in dialogue.