SOUTH KOREA: South Korean defence ministry says it has found a third unmanned drone, suspected to be sent from North Korea, on a mountain on the east coast

Record ID: 184932

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: South Korean defence ministry says it has found a third unmanned drone, suspected to be sent from North Korea, on a mountain on the east coast
  • Date: 7th April 2014
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF SOUTH KOREAN DEFENCE MINISTRY
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZRVE2ZPWBPW109QFV85X4NLL
  • Story Text: South Korea's defence ministry said it found a third unmanned drone, suspected to be sent from North Korea, on a mountain on the east coast.
    South Korean soldiers found the crashed drone on a mountain in Samcheok, 290km (180 miles) east of Seoul, on Sunday (April 6) after local residents informed the military they had seen the unidentified aircraft in October last year, the ministry said.
    South Korea has previously found two drones in recent weeks, one on the border island Baengnyeongdo and another one in Paju, a city near the border with the North.
    The ministry said the newly found drone looks identical to the one found in Paju.

    "It is likely North Korea has recently developed small drones. As we see many of them were crashed. They don't seem like a completely stable drone," said the ministry's spokesman Kim Min-seok said at a regular news briefing on Monday (April 7).
    Earlier in the day, the ministry held an emergency meeting to come up with ways to deter the newly found 'threats.'
    "It is important to have a system early and promptly to detect small aircraft like a small drone. Until then, we will conduct surveillance and detect these (small aircraft) as much as we can with the equipment we have, making the best use of them," said Kim.
    South Korea's military has been criticised for apparently failing to spot or stop the unidentified aircraft that entered its airspace and flew over its capital.
    The third drone was found without a memory chip as one of the residents, identified by his family name Lee, reported to the military that he found a Canon camera near the crashed drone on October 4 and took out the memory chip for his use, the ministry said.
    According to the ministry, Lee claimed the memory chip contained photos of a beach near the mountain.
    Nearly 200 aerial photographs were recovered from a camera carried by the drone found on the border island, including some taken directly above the presidential Blue House, but the aircraft had no equipment to transmit the images, the ministry said.
    Although the North has one of the world's largest standing armies, much of its equipment consists of antiquated Soviet-era designs. It has focused resources on developing nuclear and long-range missile programmes.
    The two countries remain technically at war. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and no peace treaty has been signed since.
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