Presidential office denies involvement in drone infiltration to Pyongyang

Yin Sung-hwan, the second deputy nationwide safety adviser, attends a Nationwide Safety Council assembly on the authorities complicated in Seoul on this Dec. 27, 2024 picture. Yonhap

The presidential workplace denied Thursday the opposition’s claims that the Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) had ordered the navy to ship a drone into North Korea final yr.

Lawmakers of the primary opposition Democratic Get together (DP) claimed {that a} senior NSC official straight ordered the Drone Operations Command to infiltrate Pyongyang with a drone final October.

The presidential workplace stated Yin Sung-hwan, the second deputy nationwide safety adviser, visited the command in March 2023 as a part of an official inspection, and Drone Operations Commander Kim Yong-dae visited the NSC workplace 5 months later to debate drone deployment methods.

The workplace stated the opposition lawmakers‘ linking of the NSC’s work to strengthening navy readiness was meant to stoke rigidity with the North and is an „absurd political offensive,“ urging the DP to chorus from placing nationwide safety into „pointless political strife.“

In October, North Korea claimed to have found the stays of unmanned aerial autos carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets in its capital, accusing Seoul of sending the drones and warning of retaliation if such actions had been repeated.

The navy has maintained its stance of not confirming the alleged drone infiltration regardless of suspicions raised by the opposition bloc that the transfer was linked to preparations for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial legislation imposition on Dec. 3. (Yonhap)