By Kyu-seok Shim and Heejin Kim
SEOUL, July 31 (Reuters) – South Korean military inspectors will visit an army corps on Friday to review an incident in which troops nearly shot down an unidentified aircraft near the border with North Korea before determining it was a U.S. drone taking part in a joint exercise, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The JCS said the aircraft was detected in northern Gyeonggi province on Thursday and was dealt with under standard operational procedures before being identified as a U.S. training drone.
The episode triggered a security scare in the heavily fortified border region, with military units issuing evacuation notices to residents and farmers inside the Civilian Control Zone in Cheorwon and nearby areas after the aircraft was detected, according to media reports.
South Korean forces initially could not determine whether the aircraft was friendly or potentially from North Korea and heightened their response posture and prepared to engage it while tracking the aircraft, the reports said.
Residents received text alerts shortly after 2 p.m. urging people in frontline areas to move to shelters or other safe locations. The military later sent messages saying the situation had been resolved after the aircraft was identified as a U.S. drone participating in combined training, the reports added.
The U.S. Forces Korea on Thursday told South Korean media the aircraft belonged to the U.S. Marine Corps and was taking part in a joint exercise with South Korean forces, adding it was assessing the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The incident underscores heightened sensitivity to aerial activity along the border at a time of persistent military tensions, with North Korea continuing to adopt a hostile stance toward South Korea and rejecting inter-Korean reconciliation efforts.
It also comes days after residents near a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek were briefly advised to evacuate following a white phosphorus-related incident, prompting calls from some civic groups for an investigation and an apology from the U.S. military.
The JCS said its readiness inspection office would visit the Army’s 1st Corps to review the overall handling of the drone incident.
(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim, Heejin Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates)
