Military-Police TF Refers 3 Over DPRK Drone Incursion to Prosecutors: "Grave Threat to National Interest"

The joint military-police task force (TF) has handed over three civilian suspects, including Mr. Oh, the graduate student in his 30s who flew a drone toward the DPRK, to the prosecution.
The joint military-police TF announced on the 6th that it had referred Mr. Oh, Mr. Jang, and Mr. Kim to prosecutors on charges including the general offense of benefiting the enemy, violations of the Aviation Safety Act, and violations of the Military Bases and Installations Act. Among them, Mr. Oh was transferred while under detention.
The three are suspected of launching a drone on four occasions between September last year and January this year. The drone is alleged to have departed from Ganghwa Island, Incheon, flown over Kaesong City and Pyongsan County in the DPRK, and then returned to Paju, Gyeonggi Province. During these flights, they reportedly neither reported the drone to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport nor obtained approval for aerial photography from the commander of the relevant military unit.
According to the TF, the suspects are seniors, juniors, or friends from the same private university in Seoul. They were involved in the same civic group or worked together at the Office of the President of South Korea under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, and shared an interest in the DPRK and drones. Based on this, they are believed to have jointly established and operated the drone company Estel Engineering from September 2023.
The TF concluded that, starting in 2024, they conspired to develop drones that could evade low-altitude air defense networks. To prove that their drones could not be detected by the air defense systems of either Korea, and to use this for publicity and financial gain, they allegedly carried out drone flights and aerial filming toward the DPRK.
The TF further determined that a drone they flew crashed in the DPRK, exposing military information stored on the drone to the North. It assessed that this incident heightened inter-Korean tensions, altered the South Korean military's surveillance posture, and thereby infringed upon the Republic of Korea's military interests.
In addition, the TF confirmed that, apart from the four flights toward the DPRK, the suspects conducted eight additional flights between June and November last year in the area of Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, to test the performance of their drones.
A TF official stated, "We regarded the suspects' alleged offenses as a grave threat to the national interest and conducted a strict investigation, and we plan to continue close cooperation with prosecutors even after the case transfer." The official added, "We will also continue investigating whether suspects affiliated with the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the military were involved in the crimes, so that we can fully uncover the facts of the case."
welcome@fnnews.com Jang Yu-ha Reporter