North Korea Launches Drone Provocation Across the DMZ that Led to Suspension of Commercial Flights in South Korea
|This is an easy provocation for the North Koreans to execute that disrupted flight operations at Incheon and Gimpo International Airports and had the added benefits of causing a South Korean aircraft to crash:
Suspected North Korean drones crossed the inter-Korean border Monday without South Korea’s permission, officials here said, prompting the deployment of fighter jets, choppers and other assets to shoot them down.
The South’s military detected multiple “unidentified objects,” presumed to be unmanned aerial vehicles, in border areas of Gyeonggi Province from 10:25 a.m., according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The vehicles flew across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, and were spotted flying in those areas in Gimpo, Ganghwa Island and Paju, leading to temporary suspensions of civilian flights.
The South issued warning messages, fired warning shots, and scrambled fighters, attack helicopters and other warplanes to remove them, while it remains unconfirmed whether the vehicles carry any weapons, the official said.
“We also identified them with our eyes,” the JCS official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “An operation is still ongoing against the vehicles.”
The military also deployed a KA-1 light attack aircraft, but for an unknown reason, it crashed in Hoengseong County, about 140 kilometers east of Seoul, at 11:39 a.m. Both of the pilots escaped safely.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but I have always felt Incheon International Airport is an easy provocation target. It just seems like madness to build something so important to South Korea economically that close to the DMZ. Regardless it is there and North Korea can easily put pressure on the ROK by continuing to disrupt flight operations there if they want to with these low cost drones.
Unless they can prove sabotage, that KA-1 crash is a little embarrassing.
Set, just like the missile that went into the golf course, shit happens. An unfortunate but good reminder that things never go according to plan.