North official demands 'explicit explanation' for drones allegedly sent from South

Kim Yo-jong, the vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said North Korea must receive an “explicit explanation” regarding the identity of drones that Pyongyang claims were sent from South Korea.

Kim Yo-jong, the vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea [NEWS1]

Kim Yo-jong, the vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said North Korea must receive an “explicit explanation” regarding the identity of drones that Pyongyang claims were sent from South Korea.

“Clear is just the fact that the drone from the ROK violated the airspace of our country,” said Kim in a statement titled “The ROK authorities cannot evade their responsibility for the grave violation of our sovereignty,” released on Saturday. ROK is short for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.

She added that Pyongyang has taken note of the South Korean Defense Ministry’s statement from Friday, in which the ministry repeatedly emphasized that the military was not involved and said it would thoroughly investigate the possibility that the incident occurred in the civilian sphere.

“I, personally, appreciate that the ROK Ministry of Defence took a wise choice for survival when it made public its official stand never to provoke or irritate us,” Kim said. “If the ROK opts for provocation against us again in the future, it will never be able to deal with the terrible consequences to be entailed by it.”

Kim also criticized Seoul’s current administration, saying it has no right to treat the alleged drone intrusion into Pyongyang under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration “as other's deed.”

“Which regime committed the case is a matter of debate within the same family. To us, the case is a grave infringement upon the DPRK's inviolable sovereignty committed by the ROK, no matter whether Yoon or Ree did.”

Filming and tracking equipment installed on a drone that the Rodong Sinmun reported on Jan. 10 was found over the Hadodori area of Songhae-myeon, Ganghwa County, Incheon, on Jan. 4. [RODONG SINMUN, NEWS1]

The DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and “Ree” refers to President Lee Jae Myung.

While acknowledging that the South Korean military has stated the drones were not operated by it and that there was no intent to provoke the North, Kim stressed that “a detailed explanation should be made about the actual case of a drone that crossed the southern border of our Republic from the ROK.”

Addressing claims that the drones may have been operated by civilians, Kim said, “The essence of the situation lies not in whether its manipulator is from the military or civilians.”

“It is undeniable that video data collected by the drone are related to the uranium mine and its settling pond, the former Kaesong industrial zone and our border guard posts, which they may have interest in,” said Kim. “Furthermore, there actually existed the flight plan and records in the drone. This requires explicit explanation.”

“The ROK authorities can never evade the responsibility for infringing upon our sovereignty and would be well advised to seriously consider a dear price for it,” Kim continued. “If they brand it as a deed of a civilian organization and then try to assert a theory that it is not an infringement upon the sovereignty, they will see a lot of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] by the DPRK's civilian organizations.”

Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back responds to a lawmaker's question at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Jan. 7. [YONHAP]

“Anyhow, the recent drone infiltration helped us to have clearer understanding of the ROK, a group of hooligans and scrap, once again.”

Earlier Saturday, the general staff of the Korean People’s Army claimed via state media that South Korea, “a group of hooligans who stunned the world by causing an incident in which their drone violated the airspace of Pyongyang in October 2024, committed another grave infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK by making its drone violate the DPRK's airspace from the outset of the year.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry immediately rejected the claims as groundless. In a media notice issued Saturday, the ministry said it had confirmed that the South Korean military did not operate drones on the dates claimed by the North. It added that President Lee had ordered a thorough investigation and that relevant agencies were continuing to verify details.

“The military did not operate drones and that the aircraft described by the North were not among the models possessed by South Korea’s armed forces,” said Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back, denying the allegations.

“If the claims were true, the incident would constitute a grave crime that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and national security,” President Lee said on Saturday. He ordered the formation of a joint military-police investigative team to conduct a swift and rigorous probe.

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting of senior presidential secretaries at the Blue House in central Seoul on Jan. 8. [YONHAP]

The presidential office said on Sunday that it would “determine the facts through a joint military-police investigation following the military’s initial probe and would promptly disclose the results.”

“The government once again confirms it has no intention of provoking or stimulating the North and will continue practical efforts to ease inter-Korean tensions and build trust,” said the National Security Office of the Blue House.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY CHO MUN-GYU [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]