A US reconnaissance drone was almost shot down by South Korean troops who mistook it for an enemy aircraft near the border with North Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported on Friday. The near-friendly-fire incident has triggered a formal investigation and calls for the South Korean defense minister to step down.
The episode took place on Thursday in the buffer zone south of the military demarcation line that separates the two Koreas. Yonhap reported that after South Korean forces detected an unidentified unmanned aircraft, they activated an anti-aircraft warning system, prepared artillery to shoot the object down and ordered residents of nearby areas to evacuate. Only later was it established that the drone belonged to the U.S. Marine Corps and was taking part in joint exercises.
U.S. Forces Korea had reportedly delivered the required formal notification about the planned flights, but because of an error the information was not passed on to higher command levels and never reached frontline units. On Friday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that an investigation had been opened.
Investigation opened after allied near-miss
A representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the inquiry would determine what went wrong in the procedure.
– We will determine whether appropriate procedures were properly followed, particularly regarding communication and coordination between the field unit and the body responsible for final approval – said the JCS representative.
The U.S. command pledged close cooperation with Seoul in clearing up the matter.
Opposition demands defense minister’s resignation
The main opposition People Power Party reacted with harsh words, with spokesperson Park Czung Kwon arguing that the situation exposed a lack of discipline in the army and should be treated as a security threat.
– We will hold those responsible for this incident accountable for non-compliance with military surveillance and reporting systems – said Park Czung Kwon.
The party called on Defense Minister An Gju Bak to step down immediately.
The incident follows a Korea Herald report from Wednesday saying that South Korean troops responsible for defending the western front had conducted guard duty in the first half of 2026 with unloaded machine guns. That disclosure stoked experts’ concerns about the level of combat readiness in the event of an attack from the North.
Źródło: polsatnews.pl, Fot. polsatnews.pl
