North Korea’s Kim holds security meeting over drone flights

SEOUL  —   North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened a top national security meeting to direct a plan of “immediate military action” in a dispute with the South over drone flights, state media reported on Tuesday.

The nuclear-armed North has accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital to drop anti-regime propaganda leaflets, with Pyongyang ordering troops on its border to be prepared to fire, and South Korea saying Monday it was “fully ready” to respond.

Seoul’s military initially denied North Korea’s claim, but later declined to confirm whether it had sent drones across the border.

Last weekend the North said Seoul would face a “horrible disaster” if drones from the South reached Pyongyang again.

Monday’s meeting in the North was attended by the country’s top officials, including the army head and other military chiefs, as well as the ministers of state security and defence.

“He set forth the direction of immediate military action and indicated important tasks to be fulfilled in the operation of the war deterrent and the exercise of the right to self-defence,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.

Officials at the meeting in Pyongyang heard a report on the “enemy’s serious provocation”, KCNA reported, an apparent reference to the drone flights.

Kim “expressed a tough political and military stand” at the meeting, state media said.

The North has accused Seoul of being responsible for drones which dropped propaganda leaflets filled with “inflammatory rumours and rubbish”, and warned on Sunday that it would consider it “a declaration of war” if another drone was detected.

Local speculation in the South has been centred on activist groups in the country that have long sent anti-Kim propaganda and US currency northwards, typically by balloon.

But South Korean drone enthusiasts have previously sent homemade devices across the border, local media said, with Pyongyang within range of those with big batteries.

Unlike conventional drones made of metal, the devices they used were constructed from expanded polypropylene, similar to Styrofoam, allowing them to go undetected by both South and North Korean authorities, according to enthusiasts who spoke to local media.

Drones from North 

In 2022, five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets.

The jets failed to shoot down any of the North Korean drones at the time.

Seoul in July said it would deploy this year drone-melting laser weapons designed to shoot down North Korean devices, saying the South’s ability to provocations “will be significantly enhanced”.

The new laser weapons — dubbed the “StarWars Project” by the South — shoot an invisible, silent beam that costs just 2,000 won ($1.45) per use, according to the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA).

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in years, with the North’s army saying last week it would permanently shut the southern border by “completely cutting off roads and railways” connected to the South and building “strong defence structures”.

Following Kim’s meeting in Pyongyang, “attention is turning to whether North Korea will respond by sending drones into the South or take strong action if drones infiltrate its territory again”, said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.

“North Korea is likely to engage in strong provocations along the border if there is a recurrence of drone infiltrations,” Cheong told AFP.