Multiple drones from North Korea crossed into South Korea on Monday and flew over its territory, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots at them, the military said.
The incident, which marked the first known incursion into South Korean territorial airspace by a North Korean drone since 2017, was a "clear provocation" by the North, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Of the five drones detected, one reached as far as the northern part of the Seoul metropolitan area, while the remaining four flew near Ganghwa Island and the Gimpo area in the western part of the country, according to the JCS.
"South Korea's military took countermeasures after detecting several unidentified air tracks (on the radar), suspected to be of North Korea's unmanned aircraft, in the Gyeonggi Province area," Lee Seung Oh, head of operations at the JCS, said during a press briefing.
The South Korean military also deployed both manned and unmanned surveillance assets near the Military Demarcation Line and into North Korea's territorial sky as a countermeasure, including filming main military facilities in North Korean territory, Lee said.
The North Korean drones were detected at around 10:25 a.m. The military subsequently fired over 100 shots in their direction, the JCS said, adding that the drones could not be shot down as the military had to avoid causing damage to civilian homes below.
The incident prompted temporary suspension of civilian flights at Incheon and Gimpo, the two major airports near Seoul.
The transport ministry asked all flights departing from Incheon to be suspended from 1:22 p.m. to 2:10 p.m., while those from Gimpo were halted from 1:08 p.m. A ministry official said it acted on a request from the Defense Ministry.
The JCS said it remains unknown whether the North Korean unmanned aircraft were armed and that an operation in response to the incursion is still ongoing.
Meanwhile, a KA-1 light attack aircraft of the South Korean air force crashed in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, about 140 kilometers from Seoul before noon while being deployed in connection with the incursion, according to the air force.
North Korean drones also crossed the border in 2014 and 2017, with one of the several drones crashing in the border city of Paju in 2014 and a crashed drone found in a mountainous area in the northeastern part of South Korea in 2017.
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