South Korea discovered a suspected North Korean drone on a mountain near its shared border Friday, according to the military, that believes the device was conducting reconnaissance. It was discovered by a South Korean military official in the mountainous Inje County in Gangwon Province, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports, citing the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The drone was found near a resident’s house, but it’s not clear what the drone was doing.
North Korea has been regularly conducting missile tests, firing off everything from ballistic missiles to surface-to-air missiles to coastal defense cruise missiles. The North also has other weapons systems in the works, including a number of unmanned aerial systems for spying and combat operations.
The recovered device resembles a North Korean drone discovered in 2014 on an island near the demilitarized zone (DMZ), according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The drone found this time looks sloppy but slightly more slender than previous ones,” a military official told Reuters.
Military officials told Yonhap that they expect to “take about 10 days to get the results of the analysis”by which authorities will be able to verify and authenticate where the 1.8 meters long, 2.4 meters wide vessel came from.
The South Korean military has retrieved hundreds of photos from the unmanned aerial vehicle which was equipped with a Sony-made camera with a 64 gigabyte memory chip. Stored on the chip were ten photos of the U.S. missile defense system THAAD stationed some 270 kilometers from the inter-Korean border.
This is the first time a drone has been used to take pictures of the THAAD site. Officials say the drone flew at an altitude of under three kilometers, and while the resolution of the photos are low, if enlarged they do show two THAAD launchers and its radar.
The drone is believed to have been sent out on its mission not long after THAAD was deployed on April 26th, but it fell to the ground on the way back after it ran out of power.
The drone is similar in size and shape to the drone North Korea sent in March of 2014 to Baengnyeongdo Island on the western sea border which was estimated to have flown some 300 hundred kilometers. However, the most recent drone appears to have some major improvements. It used a duel engine and is estimated to have flown some 600 kilometers.
The United Nations reported last year that the North has around 300 drones, although other reports suggest that North Korea could have as many as 1,000 drones in its arsenal. Limited air force and satellite capabilities impair North Korean reconnaissance efforts, so North Korea relies on unmanned aerial systems.
Over the years, the North has repeatedly sent drones into South Korea, with the latter failing in some instances to bring them down. In 2014, three unmanned drones were found in border areas. The South opened fire on a North Korean drone last year, forcing it to return to the Northern side of the border.
While most North Korean drones are unsophisticated and can be eliminated with surface-to-air missiles, the South is also believed to be developing directed energy (laser) weapons to destroy unmanned systems, as drones have the potential to be used for far more nefarious purposes than spying.
Research from the Korea Institute for National Unification notes that North Korean drones could be used for biological and chemical weapons strikes. There are even suspicions that North Korea may be developing a dirty bomb drone that could render an area uninhabitable for years.
Source: The Libertarian Republic