North Korea claimed on Saturday to have recovered the wreckage of at least one drone “from South Korea”, publishing images of the device which some experts confirmed was of South Korean origin.
On October 11, the North accused Seoul of sending drones loaded with propaganda leaflets into the airspace of its capital Pyongyang, which the South denied.
However, a spokesperson for the North Korean Defense Ministry said on Saturday that the country’s security forces had found a crashed drone in Pyongyang on October 13, according to the official KCNA news agency.
The investigations carried out “have scientifically proven that the drone came from the Republic of Korea”, said this spokesperson, whose name was not communicated, using the official name of South Korea.
The official assured that the machine was of the same type as those exhibited in Seoul during the military parade for Armed Forces Day in 2023.
However, he clarified that it was only “rather likely” that this drone was the one that “scattered leaflets in the center of the municipality of Pyongyang”, while the North had previously been affirmative.
The South Korean military initially denied any involvement before declining to comment.
“There is no point in verifying or responding to North Korea’s unilateral claims,” she said in a brief statement on Saturday.
Local speculation points to militant groups in South Korea used to sending propaganda and dollars to the North, usually by means of flying balloons.
KCNA released several images of what it says is the South Korean aircraft, including one where it appears stuck in a tree.
These photos clearly show “a small, long-range reconnaissance drone used by (…) the South Korean army,” Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Reunification, told AFP.
According to North Korea, the drone was found in Pyongyang’s Hyongjesan district. However, according to Mr. Hong, this sector is close to the North Korean missile research center in Sanum.
The machine “may have been used for (a) reconnaissance mission”, believes the expert.
But South Korean lawmaker Yu Yong-weon, who sits on parliament’s Defense Committee, suggested it was possible that North Korea had released images of a replica of Seoul’s military drones, noting that many drones used by civilians resemble the one that Pyongyang says was sent by the South.
The North has in the past shown drones appearing to be copies of US RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper drones, Yu’s office said in a statement sent to AFP.
Pyongyang has warned that it will consider any new incident of this type as a “declaration of war”.
In 2022, North Korea sent drones to the South, five of which managed to cross the border, leading the South Korean military to carry out warning shots and deploy fighter jets.
The latter failed to shoot down a single drone.
