'North Korea-bound drone' suspects both worked at Yoon's presidential office... Will it be revealed they sought to provoke the North?

[The Financial News] Two suspects who allegedly built drones for dispatch to North Korea and flew them toward the North under the Lee Jae-myung administration are both known to have worked at the Office of the President of South Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a development that is expected to cause a major stir. The suspects, both in their 30s, are also said to have been active in a conservative youth group. Military and police investigations are expected to continue on the possibility that they may have sought to provoke North Korea in order to help former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who is currently on trial.
According to a government official on the 18th, both Mr. A, who built the drones intended for dispatch to North Korea, and Mr. B, who flew them northward, worked at the Office of the President of South Korea around the same period under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. The two are said to be senior and junior alumni of the same private university in Seoul. Mr. A reportedly bought the drone body from a Chinese online marketplace and carried out the first round of modifications, after which Mr. B attached a camera and flew the drone toward North Korea. The same model of drone can easily be purchased for a few hundred thousand won via AliExpress.
In 2024, Mr. A and Mr. B served as CEO and director, respectively, of a drone manufacturing start-up they founded with support from their university. In 2020, they also organized and jointly took part in a youth group focused on Korean unification. Mr. B, who served as the head of a conservative-leaning youth group, is currently enrolled in a graduate school of journalism at a prestigious private university in Seoul. A senior official in the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is said to have written a letter of recommendation for his admission.
Mr. B claims that he sent the drone in order to measure radiation and heavy metal contamination levels at the Pyongsan Uranium Concentrate Plant near the Ryesong River. However, it is not easy to measure radiation and heavy metal contamination at a uranium facility using a civilian drone. Even if a gamma-ray spectrometer costing tens of millions of won were mounted on the drone, precise radiation measurements would only be possible at an ultra-close range of several tens of centimeters. Moreover, assessing heavy metal contamination requires collecting and analyzing soil or wastewater samples. In practical terms, this is virtually impossible with a civilian drone.
Allegations of uranium contamination at Pyongsan in North Korea have so far been raised based on Google Earth analyses by North Korean bloggers and U.S. satellite imagery experts. However, contamination levels at a uranium plant cannot be directly measured using Google Earth. Google Earth provides visible-light satellite imagery that allows only indirect inferences and has no function to quantitatively measure gamma rays or radiation levels. After these conspiracy theories emerged, the government began conducting monthly detailed tests of seawater in Ganghwa County and Incheon Metropolitan City starting in July last year. All results came back within normal ranges, below regulatory limits. As a result of the radiation-related conspiracy theories, only the seafood merchants in the Ganghwa and Incheon areas, who were blameless, suffered significant damage.
For these reasons, some within the ruling camp suspect that the pair may have committed the acts in order to provoke a North Korean military response.
Last September, when the suspects first flew a drone toward North Korea, was also the peak period of street rallies by far-right groups in support of former president Yoon Suk Yeol. At that time, Yoon had been temporarily released during his criminal trial following impeachment, only to be taken back into custody, plunging the conservative political camp into severe turmoil. After being re-detained, Yoon repeatedly failed to appear at his trial on insurrection charges, citing health reasons, missing 11 consecutive hearings before finally appearing for the first time at the initial trial session in late September last year.
The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is calling for a thorough investigation into any forces that may be behind the case. DPK spokesperson Kim Ji-ho stated, "All possibilities must be kept open as to whether this was an isolated act or whether there were connections or a hidden backer, and the facts must be clearly established."

rainman@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-soo Reporter