North Korea accuses South Korea of violating its airspace 

On Saturday, North Korea accused South Korea of sending a drone into its airspace again on January 4, thereby violating the country's sovereignty.

According to the state news agency KCNA, the drone took off from an island near Incheon, South Korea, flew approximately eight kilometers, and was shot down by the North Korean army.

It was allegedly equipped with cameras and was supposed to photograph "important" North Korean objects. KCNA published photos of the drone's remains and aerial shots of the buildings it allegedly captured.

Pyongyang claims that this is a continuation of provocations—a similar incident allegedly occurred in September over Kaesong. However, the South Korean army denied that it had operated drones on that day, and President Lee Jae Myung ordered an investigation.

Expert Hong Min points out that the published components appear to be cheap consumer products and that the recordings are of little intelligence value. According to him, the timing of the accusation is significant: it comes before the 9th Party Congress, where Kim Jong-un may further reinforce his rhetoric about South Korea as an enemy state, or even enshrine it in the constitution.

(reuters, lud)