South Korea fires warning shots at suspected drone

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - South Korea's military fired warning shots at a suspected drone flying over the heavily guarded border with North Korea on Tuesday, according to Seoul’s military chiefs

The unidentified object was spotted in the inland Chorwon County area at about 4 p.m. local time (0700GMT), prompting troops from the South to shoot more than 90 machine gun rounds before losing sight of the object.

The attack came as tensions ran high between the two countries after North Korea held a ballistic missile test on Sunday, prompting strong condemnation from South Korea and the international community, including China.

"We urge North Korea to not do anything to violate UN Security Council resolutions again," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in a statement posted on the ministry's website on Tuesday.

The North has been open about its plans to develop a missile capable of striking the United States and has ignored calls to halt its weapons program, maintaining that it is necessary to counter U.S. aggression.

In a terse response Tuesday to this week’s latest international condemnation of its missile activities, the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the UN Security Council’s statement would only result in increasing hostility to them and furthering its efforts to diversify its nuclear force, its official KCNA news agency reported.

The newly-elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been forced to maintain the vigilance of his predecessors after two North Korean ballistic missile tests in the two weeks since he took office.

In a similar incident on January 16, last year South Korea fired at a suspected North Korea drone at the demilitarized zone.