In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean soldiers operate a short range surface to air missile system during a military exercise in Yangju, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. South Korea staged large-scale military drills Thursday to simulate shooting down drones as a step to bolster its readiness against North Korean provocations, three days after the North flew drones into its territory for the first time in five years.(South Korea Defense Ministry via AP) ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Korea and South Korea broke the armistice that rules their shared border by launching drones into each other’s airspace, according to the US-led United Nations Command, in December.
On December 26, five North Korean drones entered the South, causing the South Korean military to launch fighter jets, helicopters, and surveillance aircraft into the North to take pictures of its military facilities.
The UN Command, which has helped oversee the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas since an armistice ended fighting in the 1950-1953 Korean War, said on Thursday that it had conducted a special investigation of the airspace incursions to determine whether there were any violations of the ceasefire.
The drone incursions by the two countries constituted violations, but South Korea’s efforts to shoot down the drones in its airspace did not violate the armistice, the UN Command said in a statement.
Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war because no permanent peace treaty has ever been reached to end the Korean War.
“United Nations Command reaffirms that adherence to the terms of Armistice is essential for mitigating the risk of both accidental and deliberate incidents through prevention of escalation, and for preserving a cessation of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula,” the UN Command said.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defence said its military’s use of drones along North Korea’s border is a self-defence measure against the North’s drone incursions and is not limited by the armistice.
North Korea has not publicly commented on the drone incidents.
South Korea’s Yonhapy News Agency reported on Thursday that South Korean soldiers on the border with the North did not initially view the drone overflights as an emergency, a miscalculation that was blamed on the South’s slow response to the incursion.
“Personnel of the Army’s First Corps first detected one of the drones intruding across the inter-Korean border, but they did not regard it as an ‘emergency’ that would have activated key mechanisms to swiftly share and disseminate information among relevant military units,” Yonhap reported.