South Korea said that two drones it suspects were operated by North Korea have crashed on its side of the Korean Peninsula. The discoveries come just as tensions in the region have reached a new peak, following an exchange of shells on Monday.
The first drone was found back on March 24, reports CNN, in the city of Paju, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Local media has reported that this drone had a picture of the home of South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
Another blue-colored drone was discovered Monday on Baengnyeong Island, just hours after over 800 shells were exchanged between the two countries.
“The relevant departments of the South Korean government have confirmed that North Korea is responsible for it,” South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Park Soo-jin said of the drone found Monday, reports The Independent.
Kim Hyoung-joong of Korea University in Seoul told the Independent that the drone was like a “toy,” but still useful for surveillance purposes. “This type of toy-like equipment can find a blind spot,” he added.
The rhetoric from Pyongyang has grown increasingly threatening this year, as Kim Jong Un continues to try to assert himself as a strong dictator. “The provocation that the North Koreans have, once again, engaged in, is dangerous and it needs to stop,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said on Monday’s exchange of fire.
North and South Korea are still technically at war, since the Korean War in the early 1950s ended in an armistice.