▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 10, 2026, shows what North Korea claimed was a drone sent by South Korea on Sept. 27, 2025. The North's military said it struck the drone with its electronic means to force it to fall in Jangphung County in the North's border city of Kaesong. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

NK-drone incursion

N. Korea says it takes note of Seoul's announcement military not involved in drone incursions

By Park Boram

SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea takes note of South Korea's announcement that its military has not been involved in recent drone incursions, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in a statement released Sunday.

"The ROK Ministry of Defence repeatedly stressed that the recent drone infiltration was not a military operation and expressed its will to thoroughly investigate the possibility as a civilian deed. We pay attention to the publication of such stand," Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement dated the previous day.

The reaction came after Seoul denied Pyongyang's claim, issued the previous day, that it sent drones across the border to North Korea in September and Jan. 4 in violation of the North's sovereignty, raising the possibility that private entities may have been involved in the alleged drone operations.

The defense ministry in Seoul also said it has no intention of provoking or irritating Pyongyang, pledging continued efforts to ease tensions.

"I, personally, appreciate that the ROK Ministry of Defence took a wise choice for survival when it made public its official stand never to provoke or irritate us," Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency. ROK is short for the Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea.

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