SEOUL– South Korea’s defense ministry on Sunday refuted the main opposition party’s claim that the South’s action against North Korea’s latest drone infiltration was a violation of the armistice agreement that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.

Earlier in the day, the Democratic Party denounced President Yoon Suk Yeol’s order for the military to send its own unnamed vehicle to the North in response to the North’s Dec. 26 drone incursion as a “whimsical and sloppy” move that violated the armistice agreement.

“Our military’s sending of a drone into the North was a corresponding step in terms of the right to self-defense, as North Korea blatantly violated the armistice agreement by sending drones across the military demarcation line and into northern parts of Seoul,” the defense ministry said in a message to reporters.

The ministry said the self-defense action by the South’s military was not in violation of the armistice treaty and taking issue with the move is “inappropriate.”

Last month, five North Korean drones intruded across the inter-Korean border, with one of them having flown over northern Seoul, but the South’s military failed to shoot them down. The defense ministry belatedly admitted last week that one drone entered a no-fly zone around the presidential office.

The U.N. Command has convened a special team to investigate North Korea’s drone infiltrations due to the possibility of an armistice breach. It did not specify whether its probe would only cover the North’s action or could include the South’s response.

Source: Yonhap News Agency