REPORTS COMING OUT of Seoul about four North Korean drones that crashed in South Korea raise an awkward question for two Chinese companies. How did what appear to be China TranComm’s SKY-09P and MicroFly’s UV10CAM drones, or knock-offs of same, end up in the employ of the North Korean military?
South Korean intelligence says the unmanned arial vehicles were programmed to fly from the North over South Korean military installations, photograph them, and then return to the North. The North Korea Tech blog, which did the early work of publicly sourcing the drones, has pictures and more detail.
Both drone models are sold commercially, but should not have been sold to North Korea in contravention of international sanctions against Pyongyang. China TranComm, for one, has denied any involvement. South Korean press reports suggest the drones were imported through middle men in Hong Kong, a well trodden trade route, and then remodeled or possibly copied.
These are not sophisticated machines, and there has been speculation that the North Korean military have been making a version of their own since 2010. The three SKY-09Ps or SKY-09P clones, if that is what they were, found in South Korea crashed because of technical malfunctions while the UV10CAM ran out of fuel.
Pyongyang’s drones have sufficient range, when not falling out of the sky, to reach the south of the peninsula. The fear is that they could be used to carry a deadlier payload than a digital camera.
China Bystander 