North Korea Announced the Neutralization of a South Korean UAV that Violated Airspace
North Korea has announced the neutralization of a South Korean reconnaissance drone that allegedly violated the country’s airspace.
This was reported by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
According to the spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, on January 4, 2026, KPA units detected and tracked an air target moving north in the sky over the Hado-ri area, Myeongsonggyeong, Ganghwa District, Incheon City.
The military allowed the drone to fly about 8 km into North Korean airspace, then neutralized it with electronic warfare, forcing it to crash at a distance of about 1,200 meters from an altitude of 101.5 in Muksan-ri, Kaephong District, Kaesong Municipality.
According to the publication, the drone was equipped with surveillance devices.
At the same time, the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army reported that, according to the results of the analysis, the drone, which allegedly took off in the Kanghwa District of Incheon, Republic of Korea, around 12:50 on January 4, was intended to take photos of the main strategic objects of the DPRK.
According to the agency, the vehicle covered a total distance of 156 km, moving at an altitude of 100-300 meters at a speed of about 50 km/h for three hours and ten minutes.
They also added that two cameras of the drone before its crash recorded video of the North Koreanregions lasting 6 minutes 59 seconds and 6 minutes 58 seconds, respectively.
In general, the remains of the drone included a Pixhawk series board (probably 6C or a similar model), a common open source solution for civilian and commercial UAVs, two RunCam cameras and a video capture board with a 128 GB Samsung MicroSD memory card, a 6-channel FlySky FS-iA6B receiver operating at 2.4 GHz, and a remote GPS module antenna.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that North Korea has claimed that South Korean drones have violated its airspace.
Thus, on September 27, 2025, the representatives of the Korean People’s Army reported that a South Korean drone allegedly crashed in the Changpyeong-gun area of Panju South Province, which had entered DPRK airspace after crossing the border from South Korea.
In addition, a year earlier, on October 13, 2024, the DPRK also announced that the Pyongyang City Security Department of the Ministry of Public Security had discovered a drone in the Sopyo district of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, during a search.
At that time, the North Korean KCNA reported that South Korean reconnaissance drones had committed three violations of North Korean airspace in early October, which took place on October 3, 10 and 11, 2024 and were spotted in the night sky over the DPRK.
