Arab News Japan

TOKYO: North Korea has reacted angrily to violation of its airspace by a South Korean drone, labeling it “a serious military provocation or a declaration of war” and threatening “an immediate retaliatory attack.”

A spokesman for North Korea’s Ministry of Defense of Korea announced: “The Ministry of Defense of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army have instructed general troops near the capital and the border to strengthen and deploy more anti-aircraft surveillance posts.”

“Objective evidence and scientific analysis prove that the Republic of Korea’s hostile provocation of sovereignty against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was clearly committed. We are completely uninterested in the subject of the drone provocation, no matter who the perpetrator is, and we only look at the fact that they are all hostile countries, whether it is a military scum group or a cross-border fugitive.”

North Korea said the Pyongyang City Safety Bureau of the Ministry of Social Security found the wreckage of the drone during a search in Pyongyang City. It said the drone crashed into the Seopo area of Pyongyang City and was equipped with the “Drone Operation Command of the South Korean military.”

“It is deduced and judged that it is likely that this drone was used to distribute flyers to the city center of Pyongyang,” the statement said. In a separate incident on Friday, North Korea reported “garbage scattered by Korean scum with large plastic balloons.”