North Korea accuses South Korea of sending propaganda drones to Pyongyang

North Korea asserts that South Korea threatened to use force if Pyongyang intercepted the unmanned drones carrying propaganda leaflets three times.

The North Korean government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday that the drones were discovered in Pyongyang’s night skies on October 3 and this week on Wednesday and Thursday.

According to the ministry, the ministry called the flights “irresponsible and dangerous provocation that may cause an armed conflict and lead to a war between the two sides” and accused South Korea of violating its “sacred” sovereignty and threatening its security.

North Korean forces will “all means of attack” capable of destroying the South Korean military and the southern border, according to the statement.

“The safety lock on our trigger has now been released”, the Foreign Ministry said.

Kim Yong-hyun, the country’s defense minister, claimed no drones have been flown into the North by South Korea.

When asked about North Korea’s claim during a parliamentary audit late Friday, he told lawmakers, “We have not done that”.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the North’s accusations, but also referred in its statement to Pyongyang’s practice of sending balloons into South Korean airspace, with bags of rubbish attached.

In its statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it “cannot confirm the truth of North Korea’s claims”, adding: “All responsibility for the recent series of events” lies with Pyongyang.

It cited “despicable, low-grade and internationally embarrassing acts of filth and garbage balloons and other provocations”. More balloons were being sent on Friday, it said.

North Korea has flown thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic, and other debris across the border since May as retaliation against South Korean activists who carried anti-North Korean propaganda flyers there.

The South Korean military has used loudspeakers at the border to broadcast K-pop and propaganda in response to the North’s garbage balloons.

The army of North Korea announced on Wednesday that it would “permanently shut off and block the southern border” with South Korea as the new balloons arrived.