North Korea accuses South's military of drone intrusion, warns of responding with 'merciless offensive'

North Korea’s defence ministry has accused South Korea’s military of sending drones into its territory for political purposes with a spokesperson from Kim Jong Un’s country warning the neighbour of “merciless offensive” if such a case recurs.

According to state media KCNA, North Korea defence ministry said South Korea sending drones into its territory was an infringement upon the country’s sovereignty.

The ministry further said it carried out investigations and claimed that it was found that South Korean drones flew over Pyongyang at least three times in October to distribute anti-North leaflets.

KCNA has also published images of what it described as a crashed South Korean military drone.

As per an analysis of the drone’s flight control programme, North Korean authorities said that since June 2023, they uncovered more than 230 flight plans and flight logs, including a plan to scatter “political motivational rubbish.”

A record from October 8 showed that the drone had departed the South’s border island of Baengnyeongdo late at night and a few hours later, released leaflets over the foreign and defence ministry buildings in Pyongyang.

Seoul’s defence ministry did not immediately comment, but has said Pyongyang’s unilateral claims were “not worth verifying or a response.”

Tensions between Koreas have reignited since the North began flying balloons carrying trash into the South in late May, prompting the South to restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.

South Korea and the US have said North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, which could mean a significant escalation in their conflict.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang on Friday said that any move to send its troops to support Russia would be in line with international law.

With inputs from Reuters