Seoul deploys jets, fires warning shots following incursion by North Korean drones

South Korea accused North Korea of violating its airspace by flying "several" drones across their border on Monday. In response, Seoul's military scrambled jets and attack helicopters and fired warning shots to ward them off. South Korea detected the drones in the skies of the western city of Gimpo at around 10:25 am, the military said. They then tracked the drones crossing from North Korea over what is known as the Military Demarcation Line between the two countries.

"Our military first detected a North Korean unmanned aerial vehicle around the Gimpo airspace at 10:25 am," the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

"Several North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles invaded our airspace" in the border areas around Gyeonggi province, it added.

A KA-1 light attack aircraft, one of the warplanes deployed, later crashed in Hoengseong County, Yonhap news agency reported.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff had earlier requested for the temporary suspension of flights at Gimpo and Incheon international airports near the capital for about an hour, according to Yonhap. The suspension began at 1:08 pm at Gimpo and at 1:22 pm at Incheon. Flight departures resumed at around 2:10 pm, a ministry official told Reuters.

This was the first time in five years that North Korean drones have invaded South Korean airspace and comes as Pyongyang raises tensions with an unprecedented blitz of weapons tests this year.

(With inputs from agencies)

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