Military should properly perform its role

It turned out that the drone recently found in Inje, Gangwon Province snapped photos and spied on Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province. The Joint Chiefs of Staff reported Kim Young-woo, the chairman of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, Tuesday that the drone took hundreds of photos including about 10 photos of Seongju where THAAD has been deployed. He also said that the drone was found crashed and reported by a civilian after taking pictures of the most sophisticated strategic platform of the U.S. military by flying 270 kilometers away from the military demarcation line (MDL). South Koreans first acknowledged the fact from Japanese reports two hours before the announcement by the Military.

It is not the first time that North Korean drones are found in South Korea. They were spotted in Paju of Gyeonggi Province, Samcheok, and Baengnyeong Island. Among them, the one found in Paju photographed the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and give shock to Korea. North Korean drones that fly over the heart of Korea and front-line troops are now reaching Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province. The military said the photos of Seongju contained low resolution images but the body and engine of drone was bigger and upgraded to twin engine comparing to the one with a single engine found in Baengnyeong Island. When a North Korean drone was found by a civilian three years ago, the military underestimated by saying that photos of nearby areas of Cheong Wa Dae had poorer quality than the one they received by Google. Since then, the North has made technical improvements on its drones as the country has done to its nuclear missiles. No one knows when the North may take away precious lives of our people and destroy THAAD by installing chemical weapons on missile warheads.

North Korea flies 300 to 400 drones to spy on use as the country does not have any military surveillance satellite. We do nothing even we allocate over 40 trillion won to the defense budget. It is an irony that we do not know when the North spies on THAAD battery with a cheap drone even though we have outstanding radars that China strongly opposes. Hence, Korean citizens are feeling anxious by watching the reaction of the military. The military is now in confusion due to the drone. Then, how can they protect the nation?

Such confusion may come from the fact that the Moon Jae-in administration is still forming a new line-up of national security. However, we should never condone the fact that North Korean drones continue to fly over the mainland of Korea along with missile tests since the inauguration of the new administration. The military must act now instead of giving a lame excuse, which says it is hard to detect drones with low altitude acquisition radar as they are so small. There is a big hole in national security and North Korea continues to provoke us with WMDs, hacking, cyber terror, and amateur drones. However, the government focuses on bilateral exchange and resuming talks. There is a concern that the new administration misjudges the North Korean leader to the thinking that we can do something with him without the existence of the U.S.