S. KOREA TO UPGRADE ANTI-DRONE SYSTEMS

[Anchor Lead]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff held a closed aerial defense drill as a countermeasure against North Korean recent provocations using UAVs. The Ministry of National Defense also disclosed its plan to invest 560 billion won by 2027 to reinforce South Korea's response capabilities against North Korean UAVs.

[Pkg]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that a joint aerial defense drill was conducted this morning as a countermeasure against North Korean drones. The exercise aims to teach unmanned aerila vehicle response procedures and methods through actual training. The training involved intercepting mock enemy drones. Combat readiness was inspected up until today to determine whether the countermeasures carried out by front-line bases were inadequate when the North Korean UAVs had invaded South Korean airspace. The JCS plans to find room for improvement, such as an efficient link between surveillance assets, like the local air defense radar and rockets and other assault weapons.

[Soundbite] Kang Shin-chul(Director of Operations, JCS) : "We will better operate our surveillance assets against UAVs such as the local air defense radar, low-altitude acquisition radar and TOD."

The Ministry of National Defense also disclosed its plan to invest 560 billion won by 2027 to reinforce South Korea's response capabilities against North Korean UAVs. By 2027, the Ministry will set up additional local air defense radars and laser anti-air weapons to shoot down drones. A weapons system that incapacitates drones with jamming signals will be developed with local technology. Until then, Korea plans to import the system from abroad. The South Korean military will also speedup the establishment of the drone unit as instructed by President Yoon Suk-yeol.

[Soundbite] Kim Seung-kyum(Chair of the JCS) : "Units with combat strategies that differ from those of existing drone-bot battle group and with different command structures will be founded."

But, the effectiveness of the latest plans is being questioned as South Korea's airspace was once again invaded despite the establishment of a drone unit and increased detection and interception assets since North Korean drones crossed the border in 2014.