DPRK believed to fly drone to ROK for surveillance

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was believed to fly a drone for the surveillance purpose to one of the five islands in the Republic of Korea just south of the inter-Korean western sea border where Pyongyang conducted its live- fire drill earlier this week, Seoul's presidential official said Wednesday.

Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters that he was briefed on interim investigation findings from the presidential office of national security, which was looking into the case with a view that the drone came from the DPRK.

Min said a final result of the probe had yet to come, but he noted that regardless of where the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) came from, Seoul will have to draw up countermeasures against such spying drone which is hard to detect by radar.

The unidentified UAV fell Monday on the Baengnyeong Island just south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), or the disputed maritime border between the two Koreas.

The unmanned aircraft, which is 1.8 meters long and 2.4 meters wide, was believed to be flown by the North as it crashed at about 4 p.m. Monday local time, an hour after Pyongyang's three-hour live-fire drill ended.

The DPRK fired some 500 rounds of shells and projectiles with its artillery and multiple-rocket launchers from the shoreline gun positions in its southwestern region near the NLL.

Some 100 of them landed in ROK waters 2-3 km south of the NLL. The pilotless airplane was believed to be dispatched to monitor the firing exercises.

The UAV, detected Monday, was the same kind of the one found on March 24 in Paju, 50 km northwest of Seoul, the ROK capital. The aircraft, slightly smaller than the one found in the border island, was reportedly loaded with a high-resolution camera.