By Kang Seung-woo
Military investigators are examining if there was another unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a western border island other than the crashed one, the defense ministry said, Friday.
On Monday, a surveillance drone, likely operated by North Korea, fell on Baengnyeong Island at around 4 p.m., but the military radar detected a small aircraft during the North’s live-fire drill earlier that day.
“At around 12:40 p.m., the Marine Corps there spotted a small aircraft and fired Vulcan guns,” said a military official. The North began the drill 10 minutes earlier.
However, the aircraft that was flying beyond the Vulcan’s maximum firing range of 20 kilometers, according to the ministry. The crashed drone dropped due to a fuel shortage.
“The flying object repeatedly appeared on the radar and disappeared. After Marines fired warning shots up north, it was not detected by the radar,” he added.
The aircraft was spotted by F-15K fighter jets and Peace Eye early warning aircraft, which were conducting patrol missions to prepare for potential clashes during the shelling exercise.
Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said: “The UAV that crashed on Baengnyeong Island had not arrived there when the South Korean military tried to shoot down the unidentified aircraft.”
He added that it is not clear if the airplane came from the North.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said that Pyongyang’s drones could evolve into a more destructive weapon.
“We are preparing measures with urgency considering that the drones suspected of being from North Korea could conduct suicide-bombing operations if developed further,” he said.
“Although the drones do not pose serious security threat as they can only take photos similar to the quality of Google satellite imagery, we will quickly draw up measures.”
On March 24, a sky-blue UAV, equipped with a Japanese-made camera, was discovered in Paju, Gyeonggi Province and the military found that it had taken photos of Cheong Wa Dae and military installations, raising concerns over Seoul’s air defense capability.