The joint military-police investigative task force (TF) that is examining North Korea’s claim of a ‘South Korean drone intrusion into North Korean airspace’ summoned one civilian suspect for questioning on the 16th.

The joint military-police investigative TF said that “one civilian suspect has been asked to appear and an investigation into the matter is under way.” The TF reportedly believes the drone was flown from the civilian sector rather than by the military and therefore summoned the civilian suspect for questioning that day.

Earlier, on the 10th, North Korea issued a statement by the spokesperson of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, asserting that “on January 4, we detected an aerial target moving northward in the vicinity of Ganghwa County, Incheon, attacked it with electronic warfare assets, and forced it to crash at a point near the Kaephung area of Kaesong City.” It also said that “on September 27 last year, a drone that took off from Paju, Gyeonggi Province, intruded as far as Pyeongsan County, North Hwanghae Province,” and released the flight path and photos taken by the downed drone.

President Lee Jae Myung ordered a stern investigation through the formation of a joint military-police investigative team in light of the possibility that a civilian operated the drone. In response, on the 12th the government formed a joint military-police investigative TF of about 30 members, led by the head of the Security Investigation Bureau at the National Office of Investigation of the National Police Agency, comprising around 20 police officers and over 10 military personnel, and launched the probe.

In connection with this, Channel A reported in the afternoon that “a graduate student in his 30s, identified as A, said, ‘I am the one who flew the drone.’” In an interview, A claimed that “the civilian suspect questioned by police today is merely the person who built a drone for me.”

A police official said regarding the report, “there is nothing we can confirm,” adding, “we are investigating with all possibilities open.”

Meanwhile, A was confirmed to have worked at the Yongsan Presidential Office during the tenure of former President Yoon Suk-yeol. At the time, a Presidential Office official told a reporter by phone, “A was not a contract employee but simply a part-time worker,” adding, “there was a previous instance when he posed as a full-time employee, which caused an issue.”