South Korea has ramped up its response forces following the discovery of a third drone, similar to the one found in the northern city of Paju last month, in the mountains near Samcheok late last week.
South Korea's Ministry of National Defense has urged the military to maintain operational readiness, stating that the three drones were used for surveillance, but could also be used as part of an attack.
"It is important to have a system early and promptly to detect small aircraft like as small drone. Until then, we will conduct surveillance and detect these [small aircrafts] as much as we can with the equipment we have, making the best use of them," the ministry's spokesperson Kim Min-Seok said at a news briefing.
The latest drone was first found by a wild ginseng digger in October last year in the area of Cheongok Mountain, but it was only reported to military officials last Friday.
The drone, believed to be the same model as the one that had crashed earlier in Paju, measures 1.22 metres long with a wingspan of 1.93 meters and weighs 15 kg. Images captured by a Japanese-made Canon camera fitted in the unmanned aerial vehicle were erased after the farmer took the camera for his personal use.
In recent weeks, a crashed drone was discovered on the border island of Baengnyeongdo and another was found in Paju, a city near the border with North Korea.
North Korea has since made its first public mention of the recent drone crashes on April 5, but its statement neither confirmed or denied the South's claims of its responsibility for the drones.
