North Korea accuses South Korea of flying drones to its capital and threatens to attack next time

[October 11, 2024]  By KIM TONG-HYUNG

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has accused rival South Korea of flying drones to its capital to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again.  

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that South Korean drones were detected in the night skies of Pyongyang on Oct. 3 and Wednesday and Thursday this week.

The ministry accused the South of violating North Korea’s “sacred” sovereignty and threatening its security, and said its forces will prepare “all means of attack” and respond without warning if South Korean drones are detected in its territory again.

“The safety lock on our trigger has now been released,” the ministry said. “We will be prepared for everything and will be watching. The criminals should no longer gamble with the lives of their citizens.”

South Korea’s government and military didn’t immediately comment on the North’s statement.

Tensions between the rival Koreas have escalated in recent months as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ramped up weapons tests and threats and South Korea has responded by strengthening its joint military exercises with the United States.

Since May, North Korea has also sent thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic and other trash to drop on the South, in a bizarre psychological warfare campaign that worsened the animosity between the nations.

On Wednesday, North Korea said it will permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to cope with “confrontational hysteria” by South Korean and U.S. forces.

North Korea’s military said in a statement on state media that it will “completely cut off roads and railways” linked to South Korea and “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defense structures.”

North Korea called its steps a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security” of the country and accused its rivals of “getting ever more reckless in their confrontational hysteria.” North Korea cited what it called various military exercises in South Korea, the deployment of U.S. strategic assets and its rivals’ harsh rhetoric.

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