An unmanned drone lies on a mountain in Samcheok, South Korea, Sunday, April 6, 2014.
Associated Press
South Korea said Friday that it found additional evidence pointing to North Korea as the sender of surveillance drones found in recent weeks near the inter-Korean border.
While cautioning that its interim report wasn’t conclusive, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said that it was “practically impossible” that the aircraft came from anywhere farther than North Korea, given the engine capacity, the fuel tank sizes and weather conditions at the suspected hours of flight.
The ministry also hasn’t found evidence to support a launch inside South Korea. The designs of the drones differed from privately-operated unmanned aerial vehicles in the country, the ministry said.
South Korea discovered three drones crashed in three separate spots near North Korea, hundreds of miles away from each other. The first was discovered in Paju, north of Seoul, on March 24 and the second a week later on Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. The third was found on Sunday on a mountainside in Samcheok, 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of Seoul.
The findings have raised questions about South Korea’s ability to deter North Korean incursions into its airspace.
Photos stored inside a camera attached to one plane showed military facilities inside the South, the ministry said. A national newspaper reported earlier that another drone took photos of the Presidential Office and residence, which the ministry confirmed on Friday.
North Korea has denied involvement since the drones’ discovery and the South defense ministry said it hasn’t found definitive evidence. Internal parts were found to have come from several countries, including the U.S., Japan, Czech Republic and even South Korea, ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
Investigators found six different fingerprints each on two drones and couldn’t find them in the South Korean registry. Every South Korean citizen has their fingerprints registered in the national system.
“If these acts are ultimately found to be North Korea’s doing, we will sternly respond to the serious provocation of invading South Korea’s airspace,” Mr. Kim said.
The unmanned aerial vehicles likely flew at between 180 and 300 kilometers per hour, the ministry said.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/04/11/south-korea-says-more-evidence-drones-came-from-north/