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| President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, Tuesday. Yoon called for a decisive and overwhelming response to any provocations by North Korea, Wednesday. Newsis |
Defense minister apologizes over response to drones, vows to improve air defense system
By Jung Min-ho
President Yoon Suk-yeol called for a decisive and overwhelming response to any provocations by North Korea, saying that strong action is the most effective deterrent.
Presiding over a meeting on Wednesday with presidential secretaries and ranking officials of the National Security Office, Yoon said South Korea's military should not hesitate just because North Korea has nuclear weapons.
His strongly worded remarks came a day after he became "furious" over the military's bumbling response to North Korea's drones, one of which reached the skies of the nation's capital.
An official at the presidential office told reporters that the atmosphere was tense when Yoon was briefed by Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup on the five unmanned aerial vehicles that intruded across the inter-Korean border and how the military responded, including its failure to destroy them.
"What have you done so far? How come there is no preparation despite similar incidents in the past?" Yoon said during the meeting with Lee and top security advisers, according to the official.
The president then ordered Lee to expedite the process for launching a drone unit, without waiting for a Cabinet meeting scheduled to be held later that day.
Yoon also told Lee to respond to North Korea's provocation by sending two or three drones there.
While one North Korean drone traveled as far as northern Seoul, the other four hovered mainly around Incheon's Ganghwa Island off the west coast. South Korea's military fired warning shots and sent fighter jets and attack helicopters in response, but failed to shoot them down.
"Yoon has expressed his full faith in the military, but it failed to meet his expectations," the official said. "Yoon berated Lee for the military's lack of discipline and training."
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) criticized Yoon and the military for not holding a National Security Council meeting over the incident. But the official said it was unnecessary because the commander-in-chief was giving orders to National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han simultaneously.
At the Cabinet meeting, Yoon promised to strengthen the military's air defense system and develop stealth technology for drones, asking for cooperation from the National Assembly which had slashed the budget for anti-drone operations last week.
Speaking to members of the Assembly's defense committee, Wednesday, Lee apologized for the botched response. But when asked whether one of the drones had made it as far as central Seoul's Yongsan District, where the presidential office is located, he said it hadn't.
Responding to a question by Rep. Sul Hoon of the DPK, Lee also said it is true that Yoon ordered him to "take the risk" of military escalation by sending drones to the North. That order, he added, should be interpreted as the determination to prevent war by restraining such provocations rather than as the determination to start one.
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| Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup answers a question from a lawmaker at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
On the same day, the Ministry of National Defense announced its five-year plan to increase spending by an annual average of 6.8 percent, with a focus on enhancing weapons systems to counter North Korea's evolving threats including drones.
Out of the total 331 trillion won ($261 billion) budgeted for the next five years, the ministry allocated 560 billion won to bolstering counter-drone capabilities, including the deployment of a laser weapon system. It also hopes to deploy multiple reconnaissance satellites to strengthen its monitoring of the North ― a key to the Kill Chain preemptive strike platform.
Procuring additional stealth jets and midsize submarines capable of carrying ballistic missiles were among the other major projects.
As the war in Ukraine demonstrates, experts believe drones will play increasingly important roles in future warfare. In that war, drones have been used not just for carrying out combat operations but also for intelligence gathering and even for documenting war crimes.
Apparently aware of its benefits, North Korea is expected to increase investments into the technology. Experts say South Korea should be more aggressive in developing drones and counter-drone systems to prepare the military for drone-based threats.
The presidential office said Yoon will go to Daejeon to visit the Agency for Defense Development, a government agency for research and development in defense technology. He is expected to check on the latest technologies under development, including drone-related ones.
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