U.S. drone scare exposes South Korea command gaps
· UPIAug. 2 (Asia Today) -- A breakdown in South Korea's military reporting system appears to have caused troops to mistake a U.S. Marine Corps training drone for a potentially hostile North Korean aircraft near the inter-Korean border, bringing air defense units close to an attempted interception.
U.S. forces had notified the South Korean Army's I Corps of the drone's flight plan before Thursday's exercise, according to military officials. The information, however, was not passed to the Ground Operations Command or the Air Force Operations Command, which held authority over the flight and the military response.
The incident has renewed concern over structural gaps in information sharing between the South Korean and U.S. militaries.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff has sent an inspection team to I Corps to examine the detection, reporting and response process.
The review comes as I Corps also faces a separate controversy over reports that some heavy weapons at front-line guard posts were kept without ammunition loaded.
Air defenses placed on alert near border
Military surveillance equipment detected an unidentified aircraft Thursday about 2 miles south of the Military Demarcation Line in Paju, a border city in Gyeonggi Province, according to defense and Joint Chiefs officials.
The aircraft was detected by thermal observation equipment and local air defense radar in an area north of the Civilian Control Line.
I Corps received authorization from the Ground Operations Command to activate Durumi, an air defense posture used in response to a possible North Korean drone intrusion.
South Korean forces placed ground-based air defense weapons, including K-30W Chunho wheeled antiaircraft guns, on standby. Attack helicopters were also prepared for a possible interception.
No shots were fired.
Residents of villages north of the Civilian Control Line in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, received emergency text messages emphasizing that the alert involved an actual operational situation and advising them to prepare to evacuate.
The aircraft was closely tracked by thermal equipment and by an attack helicopter pilot dispatched to the area. It was eventually identified as a U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance drone participating in combined training.
The Joint Chiefs announced at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday that the aircraft had been identified as a U.S. drone involved in an exercise, ending the alert.
The South Korean and U.S. Marine Corps were conducting Korean Marine Exchange Program training at Story Range in Paju.
The drill involved firing 81 mm mortar training rounds and using a drone to assess the results of the target strikes.
Flight information stopped at corps level
The incident appears to have resulted from the failure to distribute the drone's flight plan through South Korea's military chain of command.
Flights below 700 feet in the area fall within Army-controlled airspace and require authorization from the Ground Operations Command. Requests are normally submitted through the Army corps responsible for the area.
U.S. Forces Korea said it had communicated with I Corps, which oversees the training range, and delivered documentation related to the drone before the exercise.
I Corps, however, did not report the information to the Ground Operations Command, leaving the higher command unaware of the planned flight when the drone appeared near the border.
The exercise proceeded without final flight authorization.
A military official said personnel at I Corps may have considered the activity routine because similar training takes place throughout the year and therefore failed to properly report it to higher headquarters.
Questions also remain over whether the method used by U.S. forces to provide the information followed standard procedures.
The Joint Chiefs plans to examine both the South Korean military's internal reporting process and whether the U.S. notification was delivered through the proper channel.
U.S. Forces Korea described the event as an incident and said it was reviewing the circumstances and coordination procedures.
It said U.S. officials were working closely with the South Korean military to establish the facts.
Joint Chiefs inspects I Corps
The Joint Chiefs' readiness inspection office visited I Corps on Friday to examine the entire response, from the initial detection of the aircraft to the reporting process and deployment of interception assets.
The same office investigated I Corps after North Korean drones crossed into South Korean airspace in December 2022.
That investigation found delays in sharing flight-track information between I Corps and the Capital Defense Command, as well as failures in attempts to shoot down the North Korean aircraft. Military commanders received warnings following the review.
The latest incident has raised questions about whether earlier deficiencies were fully corrected.
South Korean forces responded to Thursday's unidentified aircraft according to their operational procedures, the Joint Chiefs said. The review is expected to focus primarily on why information about the allied training flight did not reach units responsible for approving and monitoring it.
Separate ammunition issue prompts front-line review
I Corps is also facing a separate controversy involving ammunition procedures at guard posts and general outposts near the border.
Since the first half of this year, the corps had reportedly kept ammunition in ammunition boxes rather than continuously loading it into crew-served weapons such as K6 heavy machine guns during border security operations.
The Ground Operations Command was aware of the practice, but the Joint Chiefs had not been informed.
The command ordered an inspection of guard-post procedures and crew-served weapons across all front-line units Thursday.
It also issued an emergency directive requiring ammunition to remain loaded in designated crew-served weapons.
The ammunition directive was not a direct response to the U.S. drone incident. It addressed a separate readiness issue that emerged at about the same time.
The overlap of the two cases has increased scrutiny of discipline and operational readiness within I Corps and other front-line units.
Similar disputes have occurred before
The case follows earlier disagreements over whether U.S. forces properly notified the South Korean military of training activities.
In February, U.S. F-16 fighters deployed in large numbers over the Yellow Sea during an encounter involving Chinese military aircraft.
South Korean officials said at the time that U.S. Forces Korea had not shared the training plan in advance. U.S. officials responded that notice had been provided.
The competing claims resembled the latest dispute, in which one side said information was transmitted while operational commanders said they were unaware of it.
A former senior South Korean military operations official said routine notification was not enough if the information failed to reach the command with authority to approve and manage the operation.
The official said allied aircraft could again be mistaken for hostile assets unless flight plans were consistently distributed to all relevant commands.
Because reporting failures at the I Corps working level appear to have become a repeated pattern, the official said the military should examine the reporting structure rather than treating the case solely as individual negligence.
Another security expert said the ammunition controversy should be viewed as a warning about broader discipline in front-line security operations.
The expert called for a comprehensive review of real-time allied flight-information systems, identification friend-or-foe capabilities, tactical data links and command reporting procedures.
The Joint Chiefs' investigation is expected to determine how the U.S. notification was handled, why final authorization was not obtained and whether changes are needed to prevent allied aircraft from being misidentified during future exercises.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260802010000037