SEOUL — Within the newest ripple to unfold outward from North Korea’s drone intrusion into South Korea’s air area final week, it was revealed in the present day that the South Korean capital’s most delicate airspace had been violated.
Presidential and defence officers individually admitted in the present day that one of many 5 drones which penetrated South Korean airspace on December 26 flew by way of the two.2 mile-radius air safety zone surrounding the South Korean presidential workplace at Yongsan. Beforehand, officers had solely mentioned {that a} drone had hovered over northern Seoul.
And it will get worse.
In Might, newly-elected President Yoon Suk Yeol relocated the presidential places of work from the standard Blue Home to the Ministry of Nationwide Protection compound adjoining to the huge Yongsan Garrison in east-central Seoul. Yongsan was for many years, the headquarters of U.S. Forces Korea.
Although most American navy models have relocated to a brand new base 40 miles south of Seoul exterior the port of Pyeongtaek, a skeleton U.S. presence continues to be at Yongsan.
In accordance with a U.S. navy supply, a “fluctuating inhabitants” of some 500 Individuals, together with embassy employees, troops and contractors stay. And one chunk of the largely-abandoned base is occupied by a resort for U.S. personnel and their households visiting Seoul.
The North Korean drones that intruded final week are believed to have been reconnaissance autos. No matter kind, they demonstrated that Pyongyang’s drones can attain a variety of ultra-high-value targets, whether or not the mission be digital camera/video spying, alerts interception, personnel assassination or facility destruction.
“This was fairly a rating for the North Koreans,” mentioned Alex Neill, an unbiased safety guide in Singapore.
On condition that the intrusion had additionally briefly shut down Seoul’s airports – making drones a possible weapon of financial warfare – a number of situations are open to North Korean planners.
“This episode was not only a grave breach of nationwide safety and an armistice violation, it’s unnerving,” Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based worldwide relations professor with Troy College, mentioned in an interview. “There isn’t a innocuous or benign clarification, this was a deliberate penetration.”
If Seoul doesn’t erect defenses, the North has an inexpensive, low-risk, asset to unfold mayhem – together with WMD.
The South Korean navy is underneath stress. The protection minister has been censured by Mr. Yoon, and the navy has supplied a public apology and initiated anti-drone drills utilizing jamming gadgets, KA-1 mild assault plane and 500MD multi-role helicopters.
The presidency’s relocation stemmed from Mr. Yoon’s election vow to shift from “imperial” quarters to a extra workaday, public-facing location. Critics advised Mr. Yoon was influenced partially by shamans who consider the Blue Home is contaminated by detrimental power identified right here as pengsu.
Actually, a number of South Korean presidents have suffered dire fates. One was exiled to Hawaii, one other was assassinated and 4 had been jailed after they left workplace.
Yongsan additionally had detrimental associations: After World Warfare II, the U.S. Army took it over from its despised former occupant, the Japanese Imperial Army. In subsequent many years, as Seoul expanded across the base, and as South Korea surged up the financial improvement ladder, an enormous U.S. base within the coronary heart of the capital regarded more and more intrusive.
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U.S. Forces Korea’s large new headquarters – on a marsh inland from Pyeongtaek – was ostensibly chosen for its giant measurement and low value. However whereas GIs might bemoan Pyeongtaek’s lack of after-hours evening life, strategic planners needs to be gleeful.
It joins two main U.S. air bases on Korea’s Yellow Sea Coast: Kunsan and Osan. All profit from proximity to the South Korean naval base at Pyeongtaek.
Tactically, these areas are past the vary of North Korea’s long-range tube artillery and their grouping might profit from shared defenses in opposition to aerial threats — comparable to short-range drones.
And their location makes them perfect for monitoring Chinese language naval and aerial site visitors off the peninsula’s west coast.
Naval bases, in addition to aircraft-carrier shipyards, perch on China’s Yellow Coastline. Chinese language warships, earlier than getting into the broader Pacific, should go the U.S.-aligned “First Island Chain.” That impediment extends from Okinawa within the northeast, by way of Taiwan within the heart, to the Philippines within the southwest.
Now, the U.S. troop deployment in South Korea occupies strategic surveillance and jumping-off factors contained in the strategically important chain.
The Yellow Sea “Is an all-round crucial piece of sea area and the Korean Peninsula affords overwatch throughout it, maintaining a tally of China’s ship-building capabilities and its testing of these platforms,” mentioned Mr. Neill.
