South Korea's intelligence authorities plan to buy two unmanned surveillance aircraft from a foreign company to bolster their reconnaissance capability over the western sea border with North Korea, a government source here said Wednesday.
"The two unmanned aerial vehicles will be deployed near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea to monitor the North Korean military's activities," the source said on the condition of anonymity.
The intelligence authorities are likely to purchase two Comcapter S-100s, an unmanned aerial vehicle produced by the Austrian company Schiebel, the source said.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high following the North's two deadly military attacks last year -- the sinking of the Cheonan warship and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island near the Yellow Sea border.
The Yellow Sea border was the scene of several bloody skirmishes between the navies of the two Koreas.
North Korea does not recognize the NLL, arguing it was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations forces at the conclusion of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce. It demands that a new border be drawn further south.(Yonhap)