사진 확대 The Lee Jae-myung administration’s New Year’s North Korea policy plan, which aims to resume inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea dialogue and ease tensions, has faced difficulties from the beginning.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula fell into “zero visibility” from the beginning as the North Korean military’s general staff suddenly insisted on invading South Korean drones’ airspace on the 10th, and Kim Yo-jung, vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, issued a statement criticizing the South the following day. The South Korean government and military authorities immediately started to manage the situation, drawing a line on the possibility of military intervention, but it is expected that it will be difficult to avoid a situation that adds to the burden on inter-Korean relations, which already have no needle holes. The Lee Jae-myung administration is facing the task of dealing with the unexpected bad news in inter-Korean relations at the beginning of its second year in office and continuing its policy drive toward North Korea.
First of all, North Korea did not disclose the related facts even after collecting drones from South Korea on the 4th and September last year, but made it public on the weekend after President Lee Jae-myung finished his state visit to China. In addition, these contents were disclosed in detail in the Rodong Sinmun that residents read.
Yang Moo-jin, a chair professor at the Graduate School of North Korea, analyzed, “The North may have needed time to get an overview of the incident, but it is possible that it also reflected its position on holding the Korea-China summit.”
North Korea has accumulated justification to attack the Lee Jae-myung administration, but after President Lee’s visit to China, it has become an issue all at once to dampen discussions on establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula and improving inter-Korean relations during the Korea-China summit, and keep both sides in check. North Korea is dissatisfied with the fact that the leaders of South Korea and China are close to each other through a state visit for two months, with no clear improvement in bilateral relations even after last year’s North Korea-China summit.
Through this drone offensive, North Korea has also expressed its intention to take the lead in the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, defining the governments of Yoon Seok-yeol and Lee Jae-myung as ‘perpetrators’. Through this, they also demonstrated their justification of the logic of “two hostile countries” and trying to persuade North Korean society as a whole. In a statement on the 11th, Vice Minister Kim said, “The current officials in Seoul are not qualified to make the Pyongyang drone invasion committed by the previous ‘Yoon Mang-nani’ regime as if it were someone else’s comment.”
“Whether it was committed by Yuga or Lee, for us, it is a stern provocation against the sacrosanct sovereignty of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea),” he stressed. “The nature of the situation does not lie in whether the actor is the military or the civilian,” Vice Minister Kim said. “What is clear is that drones from Korea have invaded our country’s airspace.” However, he said, “Personally, I would like to say that the South Korean Ministry of National Defense’s official position (the day before) that it has no intention of provoking or provoking us is a wise choice for life.”
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, interpreted Kim’s statement as “the intention is to maintain the position that Korea is a hostile country that does not change even if the regime changes and to pressure the Lee Jae-myung administration’s attempt to peaceful coexistence as “deception.”
Immediately after the North’s announcement, the government convened a working-level coordination meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) to deal with the impact. The government seems to be focusing on preventing the issue from turning into a North Korean leaflet or the Pyongyang drone crisis, which destroyed inter-Korean relations under the previous administration, dismissing the “military intervention theory” early on.
Kim Hong-chul, head of the Ministry of National Defense’s policy office, asserted on the 10th, “As a result of the first investigation, our military does not have the drone in question and has not operated it at the time of the date announced by North Korea.” Later, President Lee also said, “If true, it is a serious crime that threatens peace and national security on the Korean Peninsula,” and ordered “a joint military and police investigation team to investigate quickly and strictly.” This is interpreted as a political reference given that former President Yoon Suk Yeol is under investigation for foreign exchange crimes on charges that he ordered the infiltration of Pyongyang drones in 2024. However, even if the investigation confirms that a civilian actually flew a drone to the North this time, charges such as violating the Aviation Safety Act are expected to be applied in reality rather than foreign exchange crimes.
The next day, the National Security Office also stressed, “The government once again confirms that it has no intention of provoking or stimulating the North,” adding, “The government will continue to take practical measures and efforts to ease tensions between the two Koreas and build trust.”
Cheong Wa Dae is paying keen attention to the incident, but for now, it seems that the priority is to calmly grasp the facts on whether or not to operate civilian drones. A senior Cheong Wa Dae official said in a phone call with Maeil Economy, “The unmanned aircraft revealed by the North does not appear to be used by the military,” adding, “This is our internal business, not the business of the two Koreas.”
The opposition party criticized North Korea, which invaded South Korean airspace with drones in the past, saying it is coming out as a red flag. “North Korea has already invaded our airspace several times from 2014 to 2022, including over the Blue House and downtown Seoul,” said Yoo Yong-won, a member of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly. “It is absurd for such a North Korea to act as if it were a victim of sovereignty infringement.” He also criticized remarks made by Cheong Wa Dae and others as “the wrong signal to call for further North Korea’s provocations.” Rep. Yoo criticized, “Kim Yo-jung’s statement is an attitude of mocking and threatening the South Korean government and the military’s explanation of the ‘low profile of North Korea’.”
[Reporter Kim Sung Hoon / Reporter Sung Seung Hoon / Reporter Choi Hee Seok]