Residents in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, are on edge after text messages were sent Thursday urging people in the civilian-restricted zone north of the Military Demarcation Line to evacuate or move away from the area following the identification of a drone.
According to Yonhap, village chiefs in the civilian-restricted zone received a message stating that a drone had been identified in the Cheorwon area and that people needed to urgently move to a nearby shelter or outside a control post.
One resident said authorities blocked entry at the Dochang-ri checkpoint when he tried to enter the civilian-restricted zone. "I was told it was because a drone had flown in," the resident said.
It has not yet been confirmed where the drone originated. Authorities have not provided residents with clear or satisfactory information about the incident.
Given the circumstances, residents are naturally inclined to suspect North Korean involvement — and restricting their movement without promptly sharing accurate information amounts to an infringement on their daily lives.
Recent drone-related incidents have largely involved drones sent illegally from South Korea toward the North.
Testimony in the insurrection trial of Yoon Suk Yeol and others has also included accounts of drones being sent across the border to provoke North Korean responses.
In a separate case, a graduate student was detained after flying a civilian drone into North Korea without authorization. The student recently applied for bail, but a court rejected the application on July 9.
Since President Lee Jae Myung made remarks to the effect that "peace is a benefit," various peace-economy and peace-tourism initiatives have been under way. In the June 3 local elections, the ruling party won four of the five border-area county chief races in Gangwon Province — constituencies that had leaned heavily conservative during the previous era of confrontation — but Cheorwon was the sole exception, where the opposition party prevailed.
The Cheorwon county chief should move quickly to ease residents' anxiety, and if North Korea is found to be responsible, a strong national response will be warranted. However, given that recent incidents have largely stemmed from illegal acts on the South Korean side, greater attention must be paid to preventing unlawful activities by far-right groups and others.
abc@heraldcorp.com
