Flock of birds flying near South Korea mistaken for another North Korean drone
Mike Brest
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What South Korean officials thought was a drone from North Korea has instead been identified as a flock of birds.
On Tuesday, the military launched fighter jets and attack helicopters after spotting a flying object crossing the Military Demarcation Line from North Korea. While a local county office sent emergency text messages notifying residents that they were North Korean drones, the military later clarified that these were actually birds.
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A day earlier, the South Korean military failed to shoot down a group of North Korean drones that crossed the border for the first time in five years. While they scrambled warplanes and attack helicopters, they were not able to shoot down any of the drones that ultimately flew back home or disappeared.
“We have a plan to create a military drone unit tasked with monitoring key military facilities in North Korea. But we’ll advance the establishment of the drone unit as soon as possible because of yesterday’s incident,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said during a regular Cabinet Council meeting. “We’ll also introduce state-of-the-art stealth drones and bolster our surveillance capability.”
He also said the military needs more intensive readiness and exercises to prepare for the threats posed by North Korean drones.
Monday’s incident raised questions about South Korea’s air defense capabilities at a time when tensions between them and North Korea remain high amid the latter’s frequent missile tests.
“Our military will thoroughly and resolutely respond to this kind of North Korean provocation,” Maj. Gen. Lee Seung-o, director of operations at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, according to the Associated Press.
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It was the first suspected North Korean drone to cross into the South since 2017, and they have approximately 300 drones in its arsenal, according to South Korean officials.
The invasion comes less than a month after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un claimed the country was in the final stage of developing its first spy satellite, which is one of the high-tech weapons systems Pyongyang covets.