Yoon threatens to send drones 'deep' into North Korea

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Byung-joo makes remarks on last month's North Korean drone intrusion at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul on Friday. [YONHAP]

Seoul could send drones deep into North Korea if Pyongyang stages another drone incursion into the South, a high-ranking presidential official told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday.

“If the North sends unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) into South Korea again, we will not just respond passively by shooting them down,” the official said on condition of anonymity. As part of its response, Seoul would send its own drones “deep into North Korea in accordance with the principle of proportionality,” he said.

“We may send UAVs as far as Pyongyang and the launch station at Tongchang-ri,” he continued in a thinly-veiled warning to the North.

Tongchang-ri in North Pyongan Province is home to the North’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station, where the regime launched a test satellite on Dec. 19 as part of a what it called a final test for the development of its first reconnaissance satellite.

Another official from the presidential office told the JoongAng Ilbo that President Yoon Suk Yeol “ordered the establishment of a drone unit under the command of the South Korean armed forces and the production of small stealth drones within the year.”

In the immediate aftermath of last month’s drone invasion, Yoon ordered two or three drones to be sent into the North for every drone that infiltrates the South.

The president’s directive was criticized on Sunday by Democratic Party (DP) spokesperson Park Sung-joon, who called it an “impromptu and pathetic response” that would violate the armistice that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The high-ranking presidential official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo bristled at the DP spokesman’s statement.

“Which country does the DP serve, and how could they put out such a statement?” he asked, arguing that “exercising our right to self-defense against North Korean provocations is not a violation of the armistice under international law.”

The Defense Ministry and conservative People Power Party (PPP) also issued statements over the weekend that took aim at the DP for criticizing the president’s response measures.

“The flight of our military’s drones into the North is a corresponding measure undertaken as part of our right to self-defense,” a ministry spokesman said in a written statement sent to reporters on Sunday.

The ministry statement argued that forceful measures were required in response to clear violations of the armistice by the North, which included breaching the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) with drones and sending them as far as central Seoul.

The ministry also said that the armistice does not limit the authority of military commanders to “exercise the right to self-defense in responding appropriately to clearly hostile acts.”

Chung Jin-suk, the PPP’s interim chief, singled out the DP for criticism during a party leadership meeting on Sunday.

“The Democratic Party is pouring out bizarre, absurd remarks,” Chung said, arguing that the DP “is acting in a way that makes it resemble a North Korean mouthpiece.”

PPP floor leader Joo Ho-young also blasted the DP, arguing that “it is the Democratic Party's intention to tie our hands and let the North do as it pleases.”

BY PARK TAE-IN, MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]