N Korea drone entered S Korea’s presidential no-fly zone: Army

A North Korean drone entered the northern end of a 3.7km (2.2 miles) radius no-fly zone around South Korea’s presidential office in Seoul when it intruded into the country’s airspace last month, South Korean military officials say, Qazet.az reports.

“It [the drone] briefly flew into the northern edge of the zone, but it did not come close to key security facilities,” a military official told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency on Thursday.

The drone was among five North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles that crossed the border and entered South Korean airspace on December 26, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble fighter jets and attack helicopters. The military could not bring down the drones, which flew over South Korean territory for hours.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had denied that one of the drones intruded into the presidential office no-fly zone, however, on Thursday confirmed that a drone had violated the northern end of the secure area but did not fly directly over the Yongsan area, where the office of President Yoon Suk-yeol is located.

The drone incursion has sparked criticism of South Korea’s air defences at a time when North Korea poses a growing threat as it develops its ballistic missile technologies, including test-launching an unprecedented number of missiles last year.

“Drone incursions have laid bare the South’s insufficient readiness to detect, track and shoot down such small drones,” Yonhap said.