Seoul - (AFP) - South Korea accused North Korea on Monday of sending a number of drones that crossed its borders, prompting Seoul to deploy warplanes and fire warning shots to repel them.

The alleged breach of South Korean airspace was the first in five years and follows a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military "first detected a North Korean drone in the vicinity of Gimpo airspace at 10:25" (01:25 GMT) and "immediately responded".

"It is a clear provocative act in which North Korea violated our airspace," a senior officer in the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters.

According to the South Korean military, the breach led to warning shots from Seoul, which also deployed fighter jets and helicopter gunships to shoot down five drones, one of which reached the airspace near Seoul.

Yonhap news agency reported that one of the South Korean planes, a Kai-1 fighter, then crashed in eastern Hongseong Province.

The military did not say whether the drones were shot down or crossed again the border between the two Koreas, which is among the most secure areas in the world.

The South Korean army also deployed its reconnaissance means - with and without crews - in the areas near and north of the Military Demarcation Line to take "appropriate measures".

"We conducted reconnaissance and operational activities, including photographing key enemy military installations," the Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

"Our military will continue to respond comprehensively and resolutely to such provocations by North Korea," he added.

And the Yonhap news agency, quoting an official at the South Korean Ministry of Transport, said that flights were temporarily suspended at its international airports, Gimpo and Incheon, near the capital, for about an hour, at the request of the army.

According to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, this is the first time that flights have been suspended in South Korea due to "the proliferation of North Korean drones."

"Given the low level of development of unmanned aerial vehicles in North Korea, it is unlikely that they would have offensive capabilities used in modern warfare," the researcher said, considering that they were deployed for the purpose of espionage.

"We assume that it entered our region for reconnaissance training," he added.

It is the first time in five years that North Korean drones have flown into South Korean airspace.
The incursion comes amid heightened tensions, as Pyongyang has conducted an unprecedented series of weapons tests this year, notably testing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile yet.

Last week, Pyongyang launched two short-range ballistic missiles and said it had developed new capabilities for capturing images from space using a spy satellite, which it plans to complete in April 2023.

North Korea's use of drones is a growing concern for Seoul, but Pyongyang denies any involvement and accuses the South of fabricating evidence.

In 2017, the South Korean army fired warning shots at a flying object that entered the country's airspace from North Korea.

A year ago, South Korean soldiers fired warning shots at a North Korean drone that crossed the most sensitive area west of the border.

In September 2015, South Korea issued an anti-aircraft alert. It sent an attack helicopter and a fighter to chase down a drone that crossed the border, but their attempt failed.

In 2014, a South Korean fisherman found the wreckage of a North Korean drone in his net near an island on the disputed border in the Yellow Sea.