Tensions skyrocket: North Korea launches drones on the South, which launches jets
A rare and highly significant incident occurred on Monday along the border separating the Korean peninsula. South Korea's military has confirmed that it fired warning shots and scrambled jets after the North sent drones into South Korean territory, openly violating Seoul's airspace.
This is the first trespassing of this magnitude in the past five years and has led Seoul to send surveillance planes across the border in response. North Korean drones have penetrated deep into the South, temporarily halting civilian commercial flights in and around Seoul.
“According to the Associated Press , the South Korean military spotted five North Korean drones that crossed the border, one of which went as far north as the South Korean capital, about an hour away, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. South Korea.
"The army responded by firing warning shots and sending fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down North Korean drones," the report based on official army statements continues. "The attack helicopters fired a total of 100 shots, but it was not possible to know immediately whether one of the North Korean drones was shot down, according to the Ministry of Defense."
Only one of the five drones was observed flying back over the border with North Korea, while the others disappeared from radar, according to the South General Staff.
Among the surveillance countermeasures it authorized in response, the General Staff said its surveillance planes photographed sensitive North Korean facilities from which the drones were launched.
The South's rapid and significant response to drones that have violated the border resulted in a KA-1 light fighter crashing the take-off of which the crew had to scramble, fortunately, uninjured.
"Our military will respond with strength and determination to this kind of North Korean provocation," Major General Lee Seung-o, spokesman for the South Korean General Staff, said during a press briefing.
Tensions along the militarized border were already high due to the record number of ballistic and other missiles fired from Pyongyang this year, including a couple fired at Japan last week. With just days left in 2022, analysts have noted more than 90 missiles fired this year.
#BREAKING : South Korea has scrambled fighter jets and attack helicopters and has fired warning shots after North Korean drones violated its airspace
– North Korean drone flies over capital of Seoul
– A South Korean Ka-1 fighter jet crashed while fighting a North Korean drone pic.twitter.com/mJf2n1Dn1X
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) December 26, 2022
“North Korea launched at least 92 ballistic and other missiles in 2022 — more than in any previous year,” the New York Times said in a new report. "Each of them defied United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the country from testing ballistic missiles and nuclear devices."
Monday's fresh incident illustrates how close rival parts of the Korean Peninsula are to firing on each other's military assets at any moment. Kim Jong-Un's regime has also expressed anger at recent military exercises between the United States and Korea, which saw nuclear-capable bombers and F-22 stealth jets fly over the peninsula and regional waters.
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The article Voltage skyrockets: North Korea launches drones on South, which launches jets comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/tensione-alle-stelle-la-corea-del-nord-lancia-droni-sul-sud-che-lancia-i-jet/ on Tue, 27 Dec 2022 10:00:35 +0000.