Aju Business Daily

South Korea's military threatened to retaliate "strongly" against North Korea's continued provocations, revealing scientific evidence that Pyongyang sent a drone across the heavily guarded inter-Korean border to spy on the site for a US missile shield.

The warning from the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (KCS) came after experts at the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), a military research body, found that the drone equipped with a Sony camera took off from Kumgang County, just north of the eastern tip of the border, on May 2, and flew deep into South Korean territory.

"We will strongly retaliate if North Korea continues to make such provocations, the JCS said in a statement, describing the spy drone as "a serious provocation".

The drone was programmed to fly back to North Korea after spying on South Korean military facilities and took 551 photos during its flight for more than five hours at an altitude of 2.4 kilometers (1.4 miles) above water, the defense ministry said, adding it was sent after two launchers for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system were deployed on April 26 in Seongju some 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of Seoul.

The drone, which was found on June 9 to have crashed in the northeastern border town of Inje, carried a computer system produced by Canada's MicroPilot and two 50cc propeller engines produced by Czech company, RotoMotor, with its fuel tank capable of storing 7.47 liters of gasoline, according to ADD researcher Kim Jong-sung. 

The computer system using GPS signals controls its automatic flight and camera while other crucial parts were made by South Korean and Japanese companies. Kim said the drone was bigger and better than one retrieved in 2014 on the front-line island of Baengnyeong near the disputed Yellow Sea border.

Pyongyang has developed a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. South Korea recovered several North Korean drones which crashed south of the border in 2014. A North Korean drone crossed the border in January last year and flew back quickly after South Korean troops fired shots.

North Korean drones are nowhere near as sophisticated as those used by the United States, deployed mainly for short-range missions to take pictures, but concerns are growing that they could be weaponized for future attacks.

Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com

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