North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, has demanded a detailed “explanation” from South Korea over a drone that Pyongyang claims violated its airspace earlier this month, escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula even as both sides seek to avoid a direct military confrontation.
According to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Yo Jong issued the demand on Sunday, January 11, a day after the North alleged that a drone had crossed from South Korea into its territory. Pyongyang claims the unmanned aerial vehicle flew from the South Korean border county of Ganghwa into the North Korean city of Kaesong in early January and was subsequently shot down. North Korean authorities released photographs they said showed wreckage of the drone.
Seoul has firmly denied the accusation. South Korea’s defence ministry said the drone shown by the North was not a model operated by its military and rejected any suggestion that its armed forces were involved in the alleged incursion.
“Fortunately, the ROK’s military expressed an official stand that it was not done by itself and that it has no intention to provoke or irritate us,” Kim Yo Jong said in her statement, using South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea (ROK). However, she added that this denial was insufficient. “But a detailed explanation should be made about the actual case of a drone that crossed the southern border of our Republic,” she said, according to KCNA.
In response to the allegation, South Korea’s military said its own investigation had found that it does not “possess the unmanned aerial vehicle in question, nor did it operate any unmanned aerial vehicles at the time and date specified by North Korea.”
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday ordered a “swift and rigorous investigation” by a joint military and police team to determine the origin of the drone. Addressing speculation that civilians may have been responsible, Lee warned that such an act would be extremely serious. “If true, it is a serious crime that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and national security,” he said.
Kim Yo Jong dismissed the distinction between military and civilian responsibility, saying Pyongyang was not interested in who operated the drone. “That is not the one detail we want to know,” she said. “Clear is just the fact that the drone from the ROK violated the airspace of our country.” She concluded her statement with harsh rhetoric, describing South Korea as “a group of hooligans and scrap.”
Despite the sharp language, analysts said Kim’s remarks suggested Pyongyang is seeking to frame the incident as a diplomatic issue rather than a prelude to military escalation. “Pyongyang has indicated it has no intention of turning this into a military issue through Kim’s statement,” said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. However, he noted that the demand for a formal explanation “signals a shift toward a diplomatic offensive by holding the authorities accountable” for the alleged incursion.
The new drone allegation comes amid heightened political sensitivities in South Korea. Former President Yoon Suk Yeol is currently standing trial on charges that he illegally ordered drone operations during his time in office, allegedly hoping to provoke a response from Pyongyang that could be used as a pretext for his short-lived attempt to impose martial law.
Yoon was impeached and removed from office in April last year following the failed martial law bid, a move that plunged South Korea into political turmoil. Against this backdrop, the drone dispute risks further straining inter-Korean relations, which remain at their lowest point in years amid stalled diplomacy, frequent weapons tests by the North, and deepening mistrust between the two rivals.
