Between admissions of impotence and attempts at political recovery, Seoul on Tuesday, December 27 appeared embarrassed by the previous day’s incursion by North Korean drones. “We apologize. Our military spotted and pursued them, but we did not shoot them down,” Lt. Gen. Kang Shin-chul, chief of operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said in a statement.
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The day before, five North Korean drones had crossed the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, separating the two Koreas. One of them flew over north Seoul before crossing the border again three hours later. The other four were spotted over the islands of Ganghwa, Inchon and Gimpo, east and north-east of the capital, before disappearing from radar. It was the first North Korean drone strike since 2017.
The South Korean army seemed helpless because of its inability to identify drones under 3 meters long, admitted Col. Lee Seong-jun, JCS public relations officer. However, the North Korean devices measured less than two meters. Their discovery was followed by the emergency take-off of about twenty warplanes and attack helicopters with one incident: a KA-1 light attack aircraft crashed shortly after leaving the runway in Hoengseong County, Gangwon in the west of the country. The pilot and his crew emerged alive.
South Korean military reprisals
Despite this mobilization, Colonel Lee said, North Korean drones could not be fired upon over populated areas. However, the helicopters fired a hundred 20mm shells in their direction, without hitting them. And the South Korean military sent drones into the DMZ in retaliation. For the first time – officially – some entered the North to conduct “surveillance operations of enemy military installations”.
The incursion of North Korean ships had other consequences: Flights from Incheon and Gimpo International Airports, both located near Ganghwa Island, were suspended for forty-eight minutes at the request of the army. It is the first time civilian flights have been disrupted due to a South Korean military operation.
“This incident shows that our military is not ready,” reacted violently from conservative President Yoon Seok-youl, who blamed the responsibility for this lack of preparation on his predecessor, the Democrat Moon Jae-in (2017-2022) and his policies of reconciliation with the North. “I believe our people now see the danger of a policy based solely on North Korean goodwill and inter-Korean military agreements,” he said.
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