South Korea fires warning shots after North's drones violate airspace

South Korea's military has fired warning shots and scrambled aircraft after North Korean drones entered the South’s airspace, South Korean officials said. 

Several North Korean drones crossed the inter-Korean border and were detected in the South’s territory on Monday morning, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said.

South Korea’s military broadcast warnings and fired warning shots before it launched fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the North Korean drones, the Defense Ministry said. It wasn’t immediately known if the drones were shot down.

While scrambling to counter the drones, a South Korean KA-1 light attack aircraft crashed shortly after departing its Wonju base in the country's east, a defence ministry official said. 

Its two pilots were able to escape before the crash and are now in the hospital.

Earlier, South Korea's transport ministry said flights departing from its Incheon and Gimpo airports were suspended following a request from the military.

The suspension began at 1:08 pm (0408 GMT) at Gimpo and at 1:22 pm at Incheon and lasted for about an hour before flight departures resumed at around 2:10 pm, a ministry official told Reuters news agency.

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Drone programme

It’s the first time for North Korean drones to enter South Korean airspace since 2017, when a suspected North Korean drone was found crashed in South Korea. 

South Korean military officials said at the time that the drone photographed a US missile defence system in South Korea.

North Korea has previously touted its drone programme, and South Korean officials said the North has about 300 drones. 

In 2014, several suspected North Korean drones were found south of the border. Experts said they were low-tech but could be considered a potential security threat.

Last Friday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

The launch was seen as a protest of the South Korean-US joint air drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

This year, North Korea has conducted an unprecedented number of missile tests in what some experts call an attempt to improve its weapons and pressure rivals to make concessions such as lifting sanctions in future negotiations. 

Recently, the North also claimed to have performed major tests needed to acquire its first spy satellite and a more mobile intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US mainland.

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