Yonhap: North Korean drones violated South Korean airspace

The South Korean military raised fighter jets and attack helicopters into the air to fire warning shots at a North Korean drone invading the country’s airspace, transmits South Korean agency Yonhap.

According to the agency, one of the Ka-1 fighters crashed, both pilots escaped, they were hospitalized. The reason for his fall is yet to be ascertained.

As noted in the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea, unidentified objects, which turned out to be presumably North Korean drones, were discovered in the border areas of Gyeonggi Province at 04:25 Moscow time (10:25 local time). The drones crossed the military demarcation line between North and South Korea.

However, the Ministry of Transport of South Korea reportedthat flights departing from the country’s largest airports, Incheon and Gimpo, were suspended at the request of the military for an hour approximately from 7 to 8 am Moscow time (from 13 to 14 local time). In total, about 30 flights were delayed, which were supposed to take off at this time from two airports.

Last week, December 23, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles towards the Sea of ​​Japan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea specified that the missiles were launched from the area of ​​the Sunan airfield in Pyongyang.

According to local media, 2022 was a record year for the number of ballistic missile launches by North Korea. In total, more than 65 missiles were fired in a year.