파주, 백령도에 이어, 강원도 삼척 야산에서 북한제로 추정되는 소형 무인기가 추가로 발견되었다.
이 무인기는 지난 달 24일 파주에서 발견된 것과 동일한 기종이다.
지난 3일 산에서 약초를 캐는 민간인 이모씨가 “작년 10월 4일경 강원도 정선 산간지역에서 최근 파주에서 발견한 것과 유사한 소형 무인기를 목격했다는” 신고를 했고, 6일 군 관계요원과 중앙합동조사요원들이 신고자 그리고 당시 목격자와 함께 수색을 하던 중 오전 11시 40분경 무인기를 발견했다.
발견된 지점은 신고자가 밝힌 정선이 아니라 강원도 삼척시 하장면 청옥산 줄기 해발 940m 지점이었다. 이 지점은 군사분계선으로부터 직선거리 130여 km정도 떨어진 지점이다.
세 번째 무인기가 발견됨에 따라 김관진 국방장관은 7일 전군주요지휘관회의를 개최하여 안보상황의 엄중함과 심각성을 평가하고 확고한 대비태세를 위한 세부지침을 하달 할 예정이라고 국방부 김민석 대변인이 밝혔다.
군은 소형무인기 관련하여 대비책 마련에 고심이다.
합동참모본부 작전본부 권오한 소장은 “새로운 시각에서 소형무인기를 이용한 축선별 예상침투경로, 작전에 미치는 영향 평가 등을 정밀 분석하고, 방공작전체계를 정밀 진단, 우선적으로 현존 전력을 이용하여 소형 무인기에 대한 방호대책을 강구하겠다”고 강조했다.
그는 또한 이번 무인기가 북한의 소행으로 최종확인 될 경우 영공침범에 대한 법적 조치를 포함해 걍력한 조치를 취할 것이라고 말했다.
<관련 영문 기사>
Another drone, presumably from N. Korea, found
Seoul warns of strong action against Pyongyang’s drone activities
The South Korean military on Sunday discovered another small drone, presumably from North Korea, on a mountain in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, some 130 kilometers from the inter-Korean border.
The sky-blue, triangle-shaped drone is the same as the one found in Paju last month. A wild-ginseng digger first found the drone on Oct. 4 last year and reported it to the military authorities last Friday, the Defense Ministry said.
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin plans to convene a meeting of top military commanders on Monday to analyze the new security threat and deliver his “detailed guidelines” to bolster military readiness, the ministry said.
“Recognizing the drone as a new military threat, we will thoroughly analyze it, formulate solutions to complement our air defense measures and increase military assets to counter the threat,” Major Gen. Kwon Oh-han, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s operations division, told reporters.
“Should it be ultimately confirmed that the drones were sent from North Korea, we will take strong measures including legal action for having encroached upon South Korea’s airspace.”
Before discovering the latest drone, the military authorities found two more, one in Paju close to the Demilitarized Zone and the other on the border island of Baengnyeongdo, on March 24 and March 31, respectively. Seoul has tentatively concluded that the two were from the North.
To get the drone for analysis, 19 people, including the 53-year-old ginseng digger identified only by his surname Lee, military personnel and government investigators, climbed Mount Cheongoksan in Samcheok.
Lee stated that when he first found the drone last October, it carried a Canon camera, and that he threw away the broken, wet camera, but used the memory card after deleting the content.
Pending investigation into the three drones, the South Korean military plans to analyze their infiltration routes and how those drones could impact its military operations in the future.
This week, the military also plans to search the frontline areas, believing that more drones might have crashed near the inter-Korean border. Seoul also seeks to bolster its monitoring and counterstrike assets, and forge a cooperative network with civilian drone operators to enhance air defense.
The discovery of another drone further escalated security concerns that the communist state could use drones for terrorist activities.
A government source said that North Korea has already deployed the so-called “suicide drones” to frontline units for their potential combat missions, and that they were capable of striking any military target in the South.
Seoul officials presume that the drones’ operational range is 600-800 km. They have analyzed military capabilities of the drones since Pyongyang unveiled its weaponized drones through the state media last March.
The drone measures 5.8 meters long and 5.6 meters wide, and flies at a top speed of 400 km per hour, according to Seoul officials. The drone equipped with a high-tech navigation system is said to operate in a way similar to cruise missiles.
The North is thought to be manufacturing combat drones based on U.S.-made MQM-107D Streakers, a target drone used by the U.S. military to test surface-to-air missiles. The North reportedly imported MQM-107D Streakers from 2010-2011 from a Middle Eastern nation, possibly Syria.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang on Saturday criticized Seoul’s announcement of its successful test of a new ballistic missile.
“The South is in no position to criticize our exercise of self-defense such as our legitimate test of rockets,” the spokesperson of the North’s strategic missile force said in an interview carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
The criticism came as Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun reported that the North unofficially notified Japan of its plan to conduct a maritime artillery exercise and a missile test in East Sea until April 17.
“The U.S. should not take issue with our measures to strengthen self-defense deterrence anymore,” the strategic missile force said.
Last Friday, Seoul announced that it succeeded in test-firing a new ballistic missile with a range of 500 km, enough to strike any military target in the North. The announcement came as security fears surged due to the discovery of the North’s spy drones.
By Song Sang-ho (
sshluck@heraldcorp.com)
