North Korea announced on Saturday, January 10, 2026, that it had shot down a drone launched by South Korea over its territory earlier this month, warning that Seoul would “pay a heavy price” for what it described as an airspace intrusion.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a North Korean military spokesperson said Pyongyang detected an aerial target “moving northward” near South Korea’s Ganghwa County and shot it down near the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

The statement described the incident as a “serious violation of sovereignty” and accused Seoul of escalating tensions.

Ganghwa County, northwest of the South Korean capital Seoul, is separated from North Korea by the estuary of the Han River, which narrows to less than two kilometers wide in some areas.