SEOUL: A suspected North Korean drone had taken photographs of an advanced US anti-missile battery in South Korea before it crashed on its way home, the South Korean military said on Tuesday.
The drone, mounted with a camera, was found last week in a forest near the border with North Korea. It was similar in size and shape to a North Korean drone found in 2014 on an island near the border.
“We confirmed that it took about 10 photos,” of the anti-missile system, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a South Korean Defense Ministry official said by telephone.
The drone was suspected to be from North Korea, the official added.
South Korea is hosting the anti-missile defense system in the Seongju region, about 250 km (155 miles) from the border with North Korea, to counter a growing missile threat from the North.
“We will come up with measures to deal with North Korean drones,” said an official at South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
North Korean drones are known to have flown over South Korea several times.
North Korea has about 300 unmanned aerial vehicles of different types including one designed for reconnaissance as well as combat drones, the United Nations said in a report last year.
The North Korean drones recovered in South Korea were probably procured through front companies in China, with parts manufactured in China, the Czech Republic, Japan and the United States, it added.
The neighbors are technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.
South Korea and the United States agreed last year to deploy the THAAD unit in response to North Korea’s relentless development of its ballistic missiles, and nuclear weapons, in defiance of UN sanctions.
China strongly objects to the THAAD system saying its powerful radar can probe deep into its territory, undermining its security and upsetting a regional balance. China also says the system does nothing to deter North Korea.
South Korea and the United States say the system is aimed solely at defending against North Korean missiles.
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Suspected N.Korea drone spied on US anti-missile system — S.Korea officials
Suspected N.Korea drone spied on US anti-missile system — S.Korea officials
Greece backs coast guard after latest deadly migrant crash
ATHENS: The Greek government has firmly backed its coast guard, insisting it is “not a welcoming committee” as questions grow over a collision in the Aegean Sea this week that killed 15 asylum seekers.
The deadly crash occurred late Tuesday when the high-speed boat the migrants were traveling in collided with a coast guard patrol vessel off the Greek island of Chios, not far from the Turkish coast.
Four women were among the dead, while 24 survivors have been admitted to hospital in Chios.
Rights groups and international media have repeatedly accused Greece of illegally forcing would-be asylum seekers back into Turkish waters, backing their claims with video and witness testimonies.
Greek media and opposition parties have questioned the details of Tuesday’s crash, and the country’s ombudsman has called for “an impartial and thorough investigation,” stressing that the priority should always be “the protection of human life.”
On Thursday, the government said it fully backed the maritime agency.
“We have full confidence in the coast guard and we support them,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was expecting “a full investigation” into the crash.
In the meantime, he argued that preliminary details showed that “essentially, our coast guard ship was rammed by a much smaller boat.”
“This is a situation that happens quite frequently in the Aegean,” he told Foreign Policy, arguing that smugglers were endangering migrants’ lives.
Had Greek authorities not been present, more people would probably have died, he alleged.
The coast guard was “not a welcoming committee” for people seeking asylum in the European Union, he told the magazine.
- Questions -
Following the crash the coast guard said the pilot of the migrant boat had ignored signals and “made a U-turn maneuver” before colliding with the Greek patrol boat.
“Under the force of the impact, the speedboat capsized and then sank, throwing everyone on board into the sea,” the agency said.
So far, none of the hospitalized survivors have testified directly.
One of them, a 31-year-old Moroccan man, was to be questioned by police as a possible smuggler.
Several Greek media outlets, including To Vima and private TV channel Mega, have reported the victims died of severe head injuries.
Some news organizations have questioned why the patrol boat’s thermal camera was not switched on.
“The captain of the patrol boat judged it unnecessary because the migrants’ speedboat had already been detected by a camera on shore and a spotlight,” government spokesman Marinakis said.
The port police released photos of the coast guard patrol vessel showing minor damage, but no images of the asylum seekers’ boat.
- ‘Obvious distress’ -
Abusive pushbacks have become the “norm” in Greece, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in 2023.
The crash off Chios was “not an isolated incident,” the Refugee Support Aegean charity said this week.
“Based on the available information and the initial announcement of the Hellenic Coast Guard, it appears that, instead of a search and rescue operation, an interception operation was deployed from the outset,” RSA said in a statement.
“This occurred while the refugees’ boat was in obvious distress, was overcrowded and was located at a short distance from the Greek coast,” the statement added.
It is far from the first time that international organizations have pointed the finger at Greece over how it treats migrant boats.
Eighteen of its coast guard members are being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter due to negligence in the sinking of the trawler Adriana in June 2023.
The United Nations said around 750 people died in that tragedy — one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for its responsibility in the capsizing of a migrant boat off the islet of Farmakonisi in the Aegean Sea.
Eleven people died, including eight children.
The deadly crash occurred late Tuesday when the high-speed boat the migrants were traveling in collided with a coast guard patrol vessel off the Greek island of Chios, not far from the Turkish coast.
Four women were among the dead, while 24 survivors have been admitted to hospital in Chios.
Rights groups and international media have repeatedly accused Greece of illegally forcing would-be asylum seekers back into Turkish waters, backing their claims with video and witness testimonies.
Greek media and opposition parties have questioned the details of Tuesday’s crash, and the country’s ombudsman has called for “an impartial and thorough investigation,” stressing that the priority should always be “the protection of human life.”
On Thursday, the government said it fully backed the maritime agency.
“We have full confidence in the coast guard and we support them,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was expecting “a full investigation” into the crash.
In the meantime, he argued that preliminary details showed that “essentially, our coast guard ship was rammed by a much smaller boat.”
“This is a situation that happens quite frequently in the Aegean,” he told Foreign Policy, arguing that smugglers were endangering migrants’ lives.
Had Greek authorities not been present, more people would probably have died, he alleged.
The coast guard was “not a welcoming committee” for people seeking asylum in the European Union, he told the magazine.
- Questions -
Following the crash the coast guard said the pilot of the migrant boat had ignored signals and “made a U-turn maneuver” before colliding with the Greek patrol boat.
“Under the force of the impact, the speedboat capsized and then sank, throwing everyone on board into the sea,” the agency said.
So far, none of the hospitalized survivors have testified directly.
One of them, a 31-year-old Moroccan man, was to be questioned by police as a possible smuggler.
Several Greek media outlets, including To Vima and private TV channel Mega, have reported the victims died of severe head injuries.
Some news organizations have questioned why the patrol boat’s thermal camera was not switched on.
“The captain of the patrol boat judged it unnecessary because the migrants’ speedboat had already been detected by a camera on shore and a spotlight,” government spokesman Marinakis said.
The port police released photos of the coast guard patrol vessel showing minor damage, but no images of the asylum seekers’ boat.
- ‘Obvious distress’ -
Abusive pushbacks have become the “norm” in Greece, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in 2023.
The crash off Chios was “not an isolated incident,” the Refugee Support Aegean charity said this week.
“Based on the available information and the initial announcement of the Hellenic Coast Guard, it appears that, instead of a search and rescue operation, an interception operation was deployed from the outset,” RSA said in a statement.
“This occurred while the refugees’ boat was in obvious distress, was overcrowded and was located at a short distance from the Greek coast,” the statement added.
It is far from the first time that international organizations have pointed the finger at Greece over how it treats migrant boats.
Eighteen of its coast guard members are being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter due to negligence in the sinking of the trawler Adriana in June 2023.
The United Nations said around 750 people died in that tragedy — one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for its responsibility in the capsizing of a migrant boat off the islet of Farmakonisi in the Aegean Sea.
Eleven people died, including eight children.
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