SEOUL: North Korea claimed Saturday it had discovered the remains of at least one crashed South Korean military drone in the capital Pyongyang, releasing images of the aircraft that some analysts confirmed as South Korean, while a lawmaker suggested it might be a replica. The nuclear-armed North recently accused Seoul of using drones to drop anti-regime propaganda leaflets on the capital. Pyongyang’s defense ministry spokesman said security authorities found the remains of a crashed drone during a search of the North Korean capital on October 13, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The North’s investigation “scientifically proved that the drone came from the ROK”, the unnamed spokesman said, using South Korea’s official acronym. South Korea’s military initially denied sending drones, but has subsequently declined to comment. “There is no value in verifying or responding to North Korea’s unilateral claims,” it said in a brief statement Saturday.

North Korea has previously warned it would consider it “a declaration of war” if another drone was detected. The North Korean official claimed the drone was of the same type as a vehicle-mounted drone displayed by the South Korean military during an Armed Forces Day event in Seoul last year. KCNA released several images of what it claimed was the recovered drone, including one showing it lodged in a tree and others featuring North Koreans who appeared to be officials.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said that based on the images released by the North, the drone was “clearly a long-range reconnaissance small drone used by... the South Korean military”. “It is the same model that our military showcased during the Armed Forces Day event last year,” he told AFP. The North said the drone was found in Pyongyang’s Hyongjesan district, which Hong said was close to the North’s Sanum-dong missile research centre.

Given the location, the drone “may have been used (by the South Korean military) for reconnaissance”, he said. But South Korean lawmaker Yu Yong-weon, who sits on the defence committee in parliament, suggested it was possible North Korea released images of a replica of Seoul’s military drones, noting that many drones used by civilians also resemble the one Pyongyang claims was sent from the South. The North has previously unveiled drones that appeared to be visual copies of the US-made RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper, Yu’s office said in a statement sent to AFP.

North ‘sending troops to Russia’

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said if the North’s allegations were true, it could mean the South “had been conducting reconnaissance with military drones”. North Korea on Saturday reiterated it would regard the detection of another drone as “a declaration of war” and would respond with an immediate retaliatory attack. But the defense ministry official appeared to slightly amend Pyongyang’s previous claim that the South used the drones to drop propaganda leaflets over the North Korean capital. “It is quite likely that the drone is the one which scattered leaflets over the centre of Pyongyang Municipality,” he said, but added: “But the conclusion has not yet been drawn.”

Relations between the two sides have deteriorated since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in January defined Seoul as his country’s “principal enemy” and said the North was no longer interested in reunification. The latest developments came a day after South Korea’s spy agency said Pyongyang had decided to send a “large-scale” troop deployment to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia’s Far East and undergoing training.

“North Korea is currently sending elite troops to Russia and providing weapons,” analyst Hong said, noting that Pyongyang now needs to better manage its internal military resources after diverting special forces and equipment to help Moscow. “So this seems to be a response that emphasizes preventing a recurrence rather than escalating tensions with South Korea,” he added. Pyongyang has itself sent drones southwards—in 2022, five North Korean drones crossed the border, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets. The jets failed to shoot down any of the drones. - AFP