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| A crashed North Korean UAV found in South Korea in 2014 |
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, June 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea announced Wednesday that it has confirmed North Korea's responsibility for a camera-equipped drone found on a mountain near their border early this month.
The drone took off from Kumgang County in the North's eastern province on May 2 and crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the South's defense ministry said, citing a "scientific probe" that was conducted with the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD).
It examined the data of the drone's onboard computer, camera and GPS device.
"(We) have confirmed that it's North Korea's small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on the basis of clear scientific evidence from the analysis of its flight path and others," the ministry's spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said.
The UAV with a wingspan of 2.86 meters flew for around 5 1/2 hours, taking 551 photos, including those of the site for the U.S. missile interceptor system, called THAAD, in Seongju, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
It was programmed to fly back to the North, which the South calls another "smoking gun" for North Korea's culpability.
It apparently crashed on the mountain in Inje, Gangwon Province, close to the MDL on its way back to the North. It was discovered by a local resident on June 9.
"North Korea's act this time is a clear military provocation violating the (1953) Armistice Agreement and the (1992) bilateral nonaggression pact," said Army Brig. Gen. Heo Tae-keun, deputy chief of the ministry's policy planning office.
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