S Korean president calls for tighter vigilance against North
7 April 2014, 12:39 -- South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called Monday for tighter vigilance against North Korea, days after its leader Kim Jong-Un warned of a "very grave situation" on the peninsula. At a meeting with top aides, Park noted North Korea had recently threatened a fresh nuclear test, test-fired missiles and lobbed artillery shells across the sea border. Three drones suspected to have flown from the North to scout South Korea's military facilities were also found in the South over the past month.
"We have to take it seriously that North Korea has been continuously firing missiles and intensifying reconnoitering," Park was quoted as saying by a media pool report.
"We must prepare ourselves for possible further provocative acts by North Korea and take measures to stop and repel such provocative acts."
Park said the infiltration by drones had exposed "loopholes in our anti-air defense and on-ground surveillance system".
"Countermeasures must be swiftly taken and the defense of key facilities must also be bolstered."
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin said the North would be able to develop drones for terrorism, AFP reports.
"If (North Korea) developed the small unmanned aerial aircraft for reconnaissance purposes to enhance its relatively weak surveillance capability, it is expected to develop drones for infiltration and terrorism purposes in the future," Kim said during a video conference at the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul.
"We should strengthen our military readiness to be able to monitor, detect, identify and strike (the drones) with existing military assets along the border", he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
The defense ministry on Monday ordered military units across the country to search for other drones that may have crashed, a spokesman said.
The North's young leader Kim said last week a "very grave" situation existed on the Korean peninsula.
S Korea finds third suspected N Korean drone - Yonhap
South Korea found the third suspected North Korean drone on a mountain on the east coast, officials said Sunday, in what could be the latest in a series of border incursions by North Korea's unmanned spy aircraft. A suspected North Korean drone is the third such discovery in South Korea in less than a month.
South Korean soldiers found the crashed drone on a mountain in Samcheok, 290 kilometers east of Seoul, earlier in the day after three local residents informed the military that they had seen the unmanned aircraft on Oct. 4, defense ministry officials said, according to Yonhap News Agency.
One of the residents, identified by his family name Lee, told the military he found a Canon camera near the crash site on Oct. 4 and later discarded it after using the memory chip that he claims contained photos of a beach near the mountain.
The drone's appearance is identical to the one found in Paju, a city near the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, on March 24, according the defense ministry.
South Korea has found two other North Korean drones in recent weeks, in particular, one of them was discovered on Baengnyeong Island near the tense western maritime border and another in Paju. The drone discovered in Paju was found to contain photos of military installations and the residential quarters of Seoul's presidential compound.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it will take legal and military actions over the North's violation of its airspace if the drones are found to have come from the country, without elaborating on what it meant by legal and military actions against the North.
It also said it will mobilize all units across the country to search for other drones that may have crashed in South Korea.
The defense ministry added that it will hold a meeting of major commanding officers on Monday to discuss how to deal with the issue.
The three drones had apparently flown over South Korea undetected for months, sparking new security concerns over North Korea's spy capabilities. South Korea is scrambling to plug gaps in its air defenses.
The South Korean military said it is considering purchasing advanced low-altitude surveillance radar and anti-aircraft guns to better guard against drone infiltrations.
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