Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- South Korea's military envisioned the creation of unmanned combat units using drones that can carry out various missions from reconnaissance and suicidal exposition to bombing.

At a military drone conference in the central city of Sejong, attended by senior field commanders, the army education command proposed the creation of a drone combat system for deployment by 2030.

For preferred development, the command promised to select drones this year for eavesdropping, the bombing of grenades or liquid explosives, suicidal explosion, surveillance and reconnaissance, and artillery guidance. The command said it would test the operational performance of selected drones, their environmental adaptability and operational suitability, followed by actual experiments next year or later.

Military officials proposed the idea of developing a mother drone capable of carrying small drones that can stage separate attacks on designated targets and come back, or a missile that can conceal drones in its body.

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 June last year, a North Korean spy drone crashed near the inter-Korean border.

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.