Suspected North Korean drone surveillance is a “grave provocation” which violates the Korean Armistice Agreement, Seoul said yesterday, demanding a UN probe into a drone that crashed near the border between the two Koreas.
A drone, which had been photographing a controversial US missile defense shield, was discovered earlier this month after it crashed close to a sensitive military installation along the heavily fortified border, the South Korean military said.
“The latest action by the North ... is a grave provocation and a wanton violation of the armistice,” South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff first deputy director Jeon Dong-jin said, referring to the treaty which ended the 1950 to 1953 war.
Photo: EPA
A full investigation into the drone’s wreckage discovered its planned itinerary and confirmed that it had taken off from the North before capturing more than 500 photographs of the South’s territory, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said.
“We strongly condemn the North’s series of drone provocations and urge it to stop all such provocations immediately,” Jeon said, vowing “strong retaliation” against any further actions by Pyongyang.
South Korea has requested an investigation by the UN Command, which is in charge of supervising the armistice that ended open conflict between the two sides, but has never been replaced with a final peace treaty.
The South Korean military said it was bolstering defenses against potential spying activities by North Korean drones, adding more border surveillance radars and anti-aircraft guns to shoot down drones.
Photographs retrieved from the latest drone include several overviews of the site for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in the southeastern county of Seongju, the South Korean military said.
The powerful US antimissile system was installed this year to guard against growing missile threats from the nuclear-armed North.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS