Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Military seeks closer coordination with US forces after drone misidentification
Jang Do-young, left, Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson, and Ryan Donald, U.S. Forces Korea public affairs director, hold a joint briefing on the 2026 Freedom Shield exercise at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul in this Feb. 25 file photo. Joint Press Corps
By Bahk Eun-ji
Review finds procedural shortcomings on both sides, prompting follow-up measures
The Korean military has shifted its focus from assigning blame to preventing a recurrence after an internal investigation into last week's misidentification of a U.S. Marine Corps drone found procedural shortcomings on both sides.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) concluded that failures by both Korea and the U.S. contributed to the incident, in which a U.S. drone flying during a bilateral exercise was mistaken for an unidentified aircraft, triggering the military's highest-level counter-drone response.
These findings have prompted follow-up measures aimed at strengthening airspace coordination while broader command responsibilities also came under review.
According to the JCS, a working-level officer at the Army’s 1st Corps received a text message from the U.S. side a day before the flight but failed to relay the information to higher headquarters or relevant units. The text referenced only a previously approved live-fire altitude, but an official document attached as a photo to the message specified the drone's actual planned flight altitude — the detail that should have triggered a report up the chain of command.
The JCS said the officer appeared to have treated the U.S. notification as routine, assuming the flight fell below the altitude range within the 1st Corps' own discretion. The JCS added that because it was the first time the U.S. side had conducted a flight above that threshold, the officer followed the informal practices used in previous cases without recognizing that the situation required a different procedure.
Under established rules, the U.S. side is required to seek approval through the Army's Ground Operations Command for flights below a certain altitude and through the Air Force Operations Command for flights above it, through official written channels in both cases. In practice, however, both sides had grown accustomed to communicating through text messages, a habit that had become normalized over time. On this occasion, the U.S. side also failed to complete the formal approval process through the Air Force Operations Command as required for the altitude at which the drone was flown.
The military concluded that both sides failed to fully comply with established procedures and announced plans to strengthen airspace coordination between the allies to help prevent similar incidents.
A military source familiar with the investigation said the findings highlighted weaknesses in how operational information was reported and shared, rather than pointing solely to the mistake of a single working-level officer.
“The reporting failure was clearly a problem,” the source said. “But preventing similar incidents will require improvements in the way the two sides coordinate and exchange operational information, not simply disciplinary action against individuals.”
The source added that the investigations were focused less on assigning blame than on identifying where coordination and reporting procedures had broken down and how they could be reinforced.
The Ministry of National Defense has also broadened its review following a series of recent operational incidents, including the drone case and a separate controversy involving unloaded rifles carried by frontline troops.
As part of those measures, the ministry removed Lt. Gen. Han Gi-seong, commander of the Army’s 1st Corps, from his post pending further review.
Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back also convened an emergency meeting of senior commanders Tuesday to review operational discipline and military readiness across the armed forces.
U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) also issued a public statement on the incident, confirming that the aircraft involved was a U.S. drone.
“We can confirm this is a U.S. drone. This incident occurred during bilateral training between U.S. Marines and the Republic of Korea Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division,” USFK said.
It added that U.S. Marine Corps personnel were assessing the circumstances surrounding the incident and would continue coordinating with Korea’s Marine Corps and relevant local authorities.
Separately, the JCS said Tuesday that another drone-related incident reported the previous day in northern Gyeonggi Province involved a civilian drone that had been approved in advance by the Army’s 1st Corps in support of preparations for a weapons testing program conducted by the Army Test and Evaluation Group.
The drone had been cleared to fly below 500 feet but exceeded its approved altitude during the afternoon, the JCS said.
It added that frontline units carried out normal operational procedures to determine whether the aircraft was the preapproved drone or an unauthorized one, emphasizing that disclosing details of such procedures could undermine military readiness and troop morale.