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NIS employee, two military officers referred to prosecution over drone flights to North

Published: 31 Mar. 2026, 14:51

A drone allegedly sent by South Korea on Sept. 27, 2025, is seen in this photo carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 10. [YONHAP]

An employee of the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) and two active-duty military officers were referred to the prosecution on Tuesday for their alleged roles in sending drones to North Korea, investigators said.

The three are suspected of helping a graduate student fly drones into North Korea from September 2025 to January, an incident that prompted an angry response from Pyongyang.

According to a military-police investigation task force, the NIS employee was referred to the prosecution on charges of aiding and abetting an act benefiting the enemy and violating the aviation safety law.

The suspect was found to have maintained a close relationship with the graduate student for over 10 years and to have given him 2.9 million won ($1,900) to help cover the cost of manufacturing the drones and food expenses on days he flew the vehicles.

The task force also referred a captain of the South Korean Army Special Warfare Command to the military prosecution on charges of aiding and abetting an act benefiting the enemy and violating the aviation safety law.

The captain, who previously attended the same school as the graduate student, is accused of joining him to monitor the flights and watch footage of North Korea taken by the drones to assess its value.

Meanwhile, a second captain under the South Korean Defense Intelligence Command was referred to the military prosecution on charges of aiding and abetting a violation of the aviation safety law by securing the footage from the graduate student and reviewing its potential use by the command.

The task force is set to wrap up operations on Tuesday after investigating the case for 79 days, during which it sent a total of six people to the prosecution, including the graduate student and the person accused of manufacturing the drones.

Yonhap