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The incident caused South Korea to fire warning shots and send fighter jets and helicopters on the flanks. In addition, air traffic was suspended at the country’s two largest airports, Gimpo and Incheon, for about an hour.

Several drones are said to have approached the airspace over the capital Seoul.

According to South Korean media, the military tried to shoot down the drone, but it is unknown if they were successful, or if the drone flew back to North Korea.

Plane crash

One of the South Korean warplanes, a KA-1, is said to have crashed in the Hoengseong area in the north of the country, according to Yonhap news agency.

– Our Defense detected a North Korean unmanned aerial vehicle in airspace near Gimpo at 10:25 a.m., wrote the South Korean General Staff in a statement on Monday.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said it was the first time flights had been canceled in South Korea as a result of North Korean drones.

Maybe espionage

He believes drones were sent to spy.

– Given North Korea’s poor level of development of drones, it is unlikely they are capable of carrying out strike drones like those used in modern warfare, he said.

This is the first time in five years that North Korean drones have been observed in South Korean airspace. Recently, North Korea has conducted a series of weapons tests, including the country’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.

On Friday, the country test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles in another weapons test.