UPDATES WITH JANUARY DRONE INCIDENT; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE
By Berk Kutay Gokmen and Saadet Gokce
ISTANBUL (AA) - North Korea on Saturday accused South Korea of a fresh drone incursion, which Seoul denied.
South Korea “committed another grave infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK (North Korea) by making its drone violate the DPRK's airspace from the outset of the year,” said a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, according to Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
KCNA said that on Jan. 4, North Korea’s military detected and monitored an aerial object traveling north from the airspace above the South Korean city of Incheon.
It added that the military used specialized electronic warfare equipment to disable the drone, causing it to crash 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) from Muksan-ri, a rural village on the outskirts of Kaesong near the inter-Korean border.
"Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we cannot but mention about the fact that the ROK (South Korea) committed a provocative act of conducting surveillance and reconnaissance of our major objects by flying a drone into the territorial air of the DPRK in September last," the statement added.
It said that on Sept. 27, a drone, which took off from the South's border city of Paju, fell into Jangphung county, Kaesong, after being shot down by the North's electronic means.
Even after the change of a "regime of hooligans in Seoul," Pyongyang said, referring to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's inauguration in June, South Korea has continued to commit "such acts of provocation by drones near the border," it added.
In response to those claims, South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back on Saturday denied the South Korean military's involvement in the drone incursions in September and earlier this week.
Noting that the drones were not models operated by the South Korean military, Ahn told Yonhap News that the North's claims were "absolutely not true."
Separately, according to the KCNA report, Pyongyang said South Korea “is the enemy most hostile towards us that can never be changed in nature, and the object to be certainly collapsed by us if it attacks.”
Pyongyang urged the international community to “clearly understand what is the root cause of escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula and inviting the danger of armed conflict,” it said.
South Korea's "military warmongers will surely be forced to pay a dear price for their unpardonable hysteria," it added.
Accusations by Pyongyang came a few days after Lee had sought Chinese mediation with North Korea.
Lee has sought to restore ties with Pyongyang since June, but North Korea has not responded.
Inter-Korean relations deteriorated sharply under the previous South Korean administration of Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted last year after imposing controversial martial law.
Yoon was also indicted of “benefiting the enemy” due to his alleged dispatch of drones to North Korea in October 2024 to incite retaliation from Pyongyang and use it as justification for his future declaration of martial law.