By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea appears to be figuring out the locations of South Korea’s propaganda loudspeakers by flying drones over the area, analysts said Thursday.
A North Korean drone briefly infiltrated the inter-Korean border and flew back to the North after the South fired warning shots, Wednesday.
This could be a sign that North Korea is preparing to strike the South Korean loudspeakers, the analysts warned.
“The drone is thought to be similar to one sent by the North in August when tension was heightened between the two Koreas after the North declared a state of semi-war,” said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum. “Those drones are remote-controlled and tasked with observing situations of front-line units and the Demilitarized Zone.
“So, it can be said that the drone, if intentionally sent, is a sign that the North is preparing for additional provocations.”
The North’s dispatch of the drone came six days after Seoul resumed broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda via loudspeakers located along the inter-Korean border in retaliation against the North’s claimed hydrogen bomb test.
When the South’s military resumed the propaganda broadcasts in August for the first time in 11 years, the North fired shells at the South’s western front unit, which were believed to be intended for the loudspeakers, 10 days after the resumption.
This time, the North’s mini-size drone appeared in the skies above one of the South’s front-line military observatory posts in the western part of the border at 2:10 p.m. on Wednesday, and flew a dozen meters into the South Korean side of the military demarcation line (MDL) before returning home after the South’s warning shots, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
A military official said on the condition of anonymity that the North may be choosing targets in the South in preparation for a possible armed clash with the South.
The isolated state also scattered propaganda leaflets for a second consecutive day on Thursday, also in an apparent response to Seoul’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts.
JCS spokesman Col. Jeon Ha-kyu said at a media briefing that the North is believed to have scattered the leaflets between Wednesday night and dawn on Thursday. He added the leaflets were mostly found in Paju and Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, located just northwest of Seoul.
“Tens of thousands of North Korean leaflets have been collected from Wednesday,” he said.
Pyongyang’s propaganda leaflets were also spotted in Seoul and in adjacent areas on Wednesday, with many of them demanding Seoul halt its loudspeaker broadcasts and criticizing President Park Geun-hye for “ruining inter-Korean relations.”
The leaflets also slammed the hostile policy of the U.S. against the North for being “anachronistic,” the JCS said.
Shin In-kyun, president of the Korea Defense Network, told reporters, “By scattering propaganda leaflets and stressing that it can carry out harsher provocations, the North is apparently attempting to create an air of anxiety in the national security of the South.”
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