North Korea Says South Korean Drone Found in Pyongyang Downed, Joint Chiefs of Staff Say Not Worth Responding

◀ Anchor ▶

North Korea released a photo of a downed drone that it said had recovered from Pyongyang, saying it had found clear evidence that our military had sent the drone.

North Korea said this drone is the same model that appeared at our Armed Forces Day event last year.

Our army replied that it was not worth giving him an answer.

This is reporter Se-ro Kim.

◀ Statement ▶

A broken drone hangs in a tree.

This is a photo released by North Korea, saying it was collected from the Hyeongjongsan area of ​​Pyongyang on the 13th.

North Korea said it has been objectively and scientifically proven that South Korea sent this drone, and provided a photo of our small military drone that appeared at the Armed Forces Day celebration event last year.

It is the same model.

North Korea said, “We think it is very likely that it was a drone that was distributing leaflets,” but said that the decision has not yet been made.

North Korea estimated that the drone that was shot down flew between the 5th and the 7th of this month, considering the state of battery discharge, but it seems that the release of leaflets was made on the 3rd, 9th , and 10th rather than at that time.

North Korea said, regardless of the distribution of leaflets, that the violation of its airspace was clear, and threatened immediate retaliation if another drone was found.

Experts generally agree that the drone in the photo released by North Korea is similar to the small drone introduced by the military last year.

This unmanned aerial vehicle is capable of flying around 400km and is rated to be able to fly to and from Pyongyang.

However, the possibility of North Korea using cloned drones cannot be ruled out.

North Korea has not released the drone’s navigation system records, and there have been issues in the past about replicating the US Global Hawk drone.

[양 욱/아산정책연구원 연구위원]

“We cannot rule out the possibility that (North Korea) got something similar from somewhere, even if it was our drone, there is no evidence that it was used in pamphlets in Pyongyang…”

Our military said it “cannot verify North Korea’s claim and it is not worth responding to.”

This is Se-ro Kim from MBC News.

Video editing: Park Byeong-geun

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