SEOUL, December 28. /TASS/. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has urged the country’s military to beef up its vigilance and plug any gaps in the nation’s defense system following an incident earlier this week when North Korean drones invaded South Korea’s airspace, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
"The military must remedy its mistakes so that they could ensure the security of the population in the face of any provocation, including the use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, and beef up vigilance," the South Korean premier said on an inspection tour of an air defense brigade that has US-made Patriot systems in its service.
The North Korean drone invasion was in violation of a 2018 agreement between the two Koreas banning hostilities along the border, he emphasized. Han Duck-soo recalled that Pyongyang had held a range of military exercises over the past year, but warned that "no nefarious attempt to jeopardize peace on the Korean Peninsula will ever succeed."
On Monday, five North Korean drones breached South Korea’s airspace. One of the UAVs reached Seoul and returned back, while the other four were seen flying near an island west of the capital before they disappeared off the radar. A South Korean military operation to counter the North Korean drones lasted about five hours, but Seoul’s military failed to shoot them down. Previously, North Korean UAVs violated the border in 2014 and 2017.
The incident drew a sharp response from Seoul. President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea berated his defense chief Lee Jong-sup for what he said was a lack of proper anti-drone training. Later, the South Korean defense chief apologized to the parliament for the incident. The opposition slammed the presidential administration for failing to convene a National Security Council meeting, but the latter responded that it did not deem such a measure to be necessary.