North Korea News Podcast by NK News - North Korea’s drone allegations, Seoul’s denial and the Lee-Xi summit in China

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

This week, NK News correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss North Korea’s new allegations that Seoul sent unmanned aerial vehicles to surveil military and other sensitive sites in Sept. 2025 and Jan. 2026. He explains the specifics of Pyongyang’s claims and the photos it released of the alleged drones, as well as […]

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Again, that's shop.nknews.org. Hello, listeners, and welcome to the NK News podcast. I'm your host, Jacko's Wedsook. And today it is Tuesday, the 13th of January. Gosh, we're almost halfway through the first month of the year, 2026. And I welcome back on the show, Junha Park. Junha, welcome back.

Thank you very much for having me. Junha, why in 2026, are we talking about South Korean drone incursions into North Korea? Well, ask the General Army staff. So the North Korea has accused South Korea of sending these UAVs, these unmanned aerial vehicles into its airspace on at least two occasions. So once on September 27th last year. Okay, which is definitely well after the election of E.J. Myeong,

who said that he would stop all kinds of confrontation, hostile activities. And again. And one more in on January 4th this year. Okay, so just a little bit more than a week ago. Mm-hmm. So right now, Seoul's Defense Ministry has dismissed North Korea's claims. So they're stating that a UAV that was photographed by the DPRK on both accounts was not... Photograph is on the website, on an article that you wrote.

Mm-hmm. And it was not a model operated by the South Korean military. And President I.J. Meng, he's also ordered a thorough investigation into the matter, and the relevant agencies are currently conducting... additional checks and also a joint investigation between the military and police on whether it was if civilian instigated drone is something that's going on at the moment. Okay. Gosh, where to start. Before we get into the different scenarios about where that drone might have come from, is there also talk about a joint North-South Korea investigation?

There is, yeah. So who's raised that idea? Well, the defense minister was the first person to raise it. So right when the allegations came out on Saturday morning, I believe it was the South Korean Outlet Yonap News Agency that called Angubek on his personal phone allegedly. And then he said that, look, the martial law is still very much in our memory. The drone incident that Yun apparently instigated was very much... Leaflets dropped over Pyongyang. It's still very much under investigation.

And what we're saying here is that we haven't been using these drones in our military for quite some time or ever and our three prominent drone commands were not in operation on those dates that were specified by the military. Okay, so there are three drone commands within the South Korean military. Well, three drone bases, commands, brigades, what have you. Right. And these were supposedly not in operation? No, so they were not flying anything. They were not flying any drones in the sky when the dates were specified by Rodong Shimon. Okay. So let's brainstorm. What could be the origins of the drones? Well, first of all, it could all be a fake.

North Korea could have taken photographs. So it could be a false story from North Korea. Well, that's the perspective that some experts have also certainly put on weight to. North Korea's accusations at the moment, they say that it was a small fixed-wing drone that flew over from Kanghua to all the way to Kheong, and then they shot it down. or they sort of used electronic warfare to make sure that it jams and then it falls down and crashes, right? And then the North Korea claims that the drone was on a reconnaissance mission, right? So they were equipped with cameras.

Yeah, navigation equipment, some equipment that is very much readily available online and sold through different third-party websites, taken up by hobbyists, also can be taken up by, you know, gadgets through to China into North Korea. So there are a lot of possibilities. There's not really a smoking gun. So it could be a civilian from South Korea. Could be. Or a foreigner in South Korea sending a surveillance drone over North Korea.

So that's two. It could have been the South Korean military, but they are denying it. Now, in the case of the drone that went over North Korea in late 2024 under President Jun Song Yolo, the South Korean military was very... It didn't confirm nor deny. It didn't confirm nor deny, and still haven't, I think, today. So to flat out deny it this time... is a different messaging.

Could it be a rogue element within the South Korean military? Well, that's the... Well, that was the initial assumption, but I think that the military's initial response allayed that down very clearly. Look, South Korea's own radar systems would have picked up

or if the drone was too small, like the one that came in December 2020, that could be something that is put into the argument. There is a radar signal of 0.0.3, that the drone that came in in November 2020 and December 22 was flagged as not detected by the South Korean military initially. They thought it was a flock of birds as well. So I think that when we look at the September 2025 case

and also the January 4th case as North Korea alleges, there is also a question that rings into my mind as to why they would just sit on a September 2025 issue for this long. Yeah, for almost three months and then ring it up. Like if they brought it down on the day, why not talk about it then? Indeed. So I think there's a lot of questions that are lingering. It's up to the South Korean military and the police and the investigation unit

to make sure that they answer these questions in sort of BD and also with a lot of candor as well for the international community but also for the north. What's North Korea saying and who's saying it? Well, as we all know who North Korea's main attack dog, Kim Yo-Jong, sister of Kim Jong-un. Yeah, so Kim Yo-jong was the first person to come out with a statement from the central leadership, saying that she acknowledged South Korea's denial,

that its military was responsible for alleged drone intrusions as a, I quote, wise choice. But she also warned that Seoul should not. What's the wise choice? That South Korea's denial that its military was responsible for alleged drone intrusions. Okay, now it does. seem to be a bit off tone for her to say anything that South Korea does is wise. So could this be standard Kim Yo-Jong sarcasm and speaking out the side of her mouth? Well, that's up to Kim Yo-jong to explain.

I think that what's up to interpretation is that she's trying to frame the whole situation so that it does look like, or that my personal point of view is that it does look like Kim Jong is trying to frame the whole issue in that the I Jemong administration is sort of cozying up to North Korea, trying to allay the concern to North Korea, say that we're still open for dialogue, we're still looking for peace. But at the same time, she's also threatened the sort of provocative actions that will be coming back if the issue is not resolved. Like the rubbish balloons a year and a half or two years ago.

So they were, she was talking about how civilians, if they keep going on with the civilian narrative, then it could be that Pyongyang could have civilians in South Korea who will be sending drones across and over the border. You mean civilians in North Korea sending drones across the border? That's indeed, yeah. Right. Now, that would be a first, right? Because I think anyone who studies North Korea

knows that any so-called civic group in North Korea is usually an arm of the government, right? For example, the old, what, the United Front for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland or I'm mixing two organizational names together. Anyway, the point is that there are no civic groups in North Korea that don't have connections to or control from the government, as far as I know. Right, right, right. And, of course, where they're going to get their drones from anyway? There's no coupang or eBay in North Korea.

They're not buying off the internet. So that means they're getting drones from the North Korean military. Yeah, I don't think that we should put much weight to the threatening. I think, you know, there is, of course, it's fairly certain that we can put onto historical fact that Kim Yao Zhang is not someone who just, box for no reason. She does have a lot of bite that comes with her rhetoric. So it could happen. North Korea could respond in kind.

They had concluded with a warning. But it does look like this doing a wait-and-see approach of what South Korea's investigations come up with and how this talk of a North-South investigation that's unlikely at this point moves into fruition. This statement that Kim Jong gave, is there video of it or is it just a written statement? just a written statement. Yeah, and I was just thinking about that when I read your articles this morning, that as a pattern, we really should point this out or talk about it a little bit.

It shows how North Korea puts a lot of weight, based almost all the importance on the power of the written word to communicate. Sure. Even though we're in the 21st century, North Korea has cameras on cell phones and things. They almost never release an actual statement from Kim Jong-or-or-Kim Jong-un speaking to camera. Yeah. It's always a written statement. It's interesting, isn't it? It's sort of a very 20th century way of communicating to focus only on the written work. Well, I mean, Kim Jong's been doing that for quite some time now. So I don't see it as changing any time soon, to be honest. But I think it's just a POV. It's just a point of view on how she should get her voice out to the international community. Whether that's accepted as a legitimate voice, however, that's up to the international community to decide. Okay, now let's talk about our second story today.

So recently, I think it was just last week, wasn't it, that President E.J. Myeong went to China. He had quite a long meeting with President Xi Jinping of China. Right. So they had a talk for what was originally scheduled for, I think it was a 30-minute talk, but they extended it to 90 minutes. And they agreed to prioritize restarting dialogue with North Korea, but made no public mention about Pyongyang's denuclearization. Yes, that's interesting, isn't it? that to talk about engagement and dialogue and not to talk about denuclearization, it's a pretty big lacuna, right? It's a big thing to leave out. Well, I mean, the Chinese side has left out denuclearization

or has not made any public remarks about denuclearization. In recent years, they've had quite a reluctance to do so. It does mark quite a contrast with 20 to 16 and 2017 when China was strongly and very publicly endorsing. denuclearization as North Korean nuclear missile test was going on. But again, of course, in September, when, or September last year, when Kim Jong-un went to Beijing for the military parade and met with Xi, the issue was sidestepped.

The Chinese National Defense Report that was released last November also did not have denuclearization. The last apex summit between Yijem Yong and Xi Jinping also did not have denuclearization. A bit of context here, of course, North Korea has not performed. formed a nuclear test since September 2017, which is now, what, almost eight and a half years ago. So I'm going to speculate here that if North Korea were to ever carry out a seventh nuclear test, China might suddenly start talking about denuclearization again. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, it could be a possibility, but at the same time, China also has been racking up their own nuclear capabilities as well.

So there is quite a lot of nuclear capability buildup in parallel between China and North Korea, of course, not on the same scale, since China is much more economically apt. Now, I saw that the president Xi said something kind to E.J. Mion about, you know, you guys have been very patient with North Korea or something like that. It was basically something that, you know, normally China tries to kind of play both sides and say, listen, both of you need to be, need to cool your heels. to chill out. But here it did sound a little bit like he was being perhaps overly friendly to Beijing, to Seoul, at least from Pyongyang's perspective. Right. So Li was saying, I think, a couple of days after the summit, he was at a press conference or a meeting with the press corps in Shanghai. And he was saying that President Xi and the Chinese Premier Li Chang were both emphasizing the need for patience when it comes to North Korea. So he was

stating that their assessment does have merit due to the previous Yun-Sogiel administrations. Very hardline policies towards Pyongyang. So I think for I Jiamenghi sort of dismissed criticism that understanding sort of Pyongyang's predicament towards the South Korean administration, based on what they experienced during the Yun-Sogel administration, is amounting to be criticism towards being

pro-North Korea, and instead he characterized it as sort of this pragmatic move that was essential to the Korean Peninsula Peace. And in that same meeting with reporters in Shanghai, I. J. Myeong said that he had asked President Xi to be a mediator with North Korea. Now, I don't know if any president of South Korea has said that before, but let's just remember that China was one of the belligerents in the Korean War on the side of North Korea. So to ask China to act as mediator with North Korea

would be a little bit like North Korea asking the US to be a mediator with South Korea. I think South Korea's Ije Myeong and South Korea's sort of progressive political administrations in the past, they have always been trying to end the Korean War. And as we all know, South Korea is not a signatory on the Korean War arms test document, but China, North Korea and the United States is.

Actually, ooh, now let me hold on there. Technically, I'm not sure whether the People's Republic of China is, but the Chinese People's Volunteers are signatories to the Armistice. Well, in that case, it's just the Chinese Army then. And the Chinese People's Liberation Army have always denied that they are the same as the Chinese People's Volunteers. So there is a fig leaf there. Well, butter-britter.

So I think that in terms of history, the South Korean administration always been, as I mentioned, trying to end the Korean War. I think that Beijing plays quite a large role in making sure that Pyongyang comes on to the negotiation table, seeing as they are the sort of big brother in the relationship, I guess. It was just a matter of diplomatic politicking where I Jemong is asking Xi for his hand in help for peace building. Yes. Can we expect much? At the moment, I'm afraid not.

I think that the Chinese foreign ministry's position right after Lee's, remarks was that they will approach the issue in their own way. In their own way, yes. And of course, this ties into the long-running debate about what influence does China actually have on North Korea? And we've seen in the last couple of years that, you know, post-COVID, North Korea has been more open to Russia than the China. And, you know, I think contact between Xi and Kim has been brief and sparse.

So, yeah, we can't expect too much, I think. No, I think Lee's still trying to stabilize the relationship between South Korea and China. And he knows that there is a lot of distrust between the two countries, both domestically and internationally. So I think that when we look at this from a political and also diplomatic standpoint, it's just an extension of the talks from APEC. Ah, the APEC. Okay, well, a lot of interesting things to keep an eye on there. Junath, thanks for walking us through those stories. And we'll talk to you again soon. In the intricate world of Korean affairs,

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