Military Intercepts 'Unidentified Aircraft' Crossing NLL... Possible Origin from China

Commercial Balloon Form... Southward Through North Korean Region
'Chinese Reconnaissance Balloon' Found in US and Taiwan

An unidentified balloon-shaped aerial object crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea and was intercepted by our military.

According to the military on the 3rd, on March 20 of this year, an unidentified aerial object was detected north of the NLL by the air defense radar of the 6th Marine Brigade on Baengnyeongdo Island. The military deployed an Air Force KA-1 airborne control attack aircraft and naval vessels around Baengnyeongdo to prepare for the object's southward movement. When the object continued moving and crossed the NLL, it was shot down by the KA-1’s machine gun fire.

In February 2023, a Chinese "reconnaissance balloon" was shot down over the waters off the coast of South Carolina, eastern United States. China denied this, claiming the balloon was a weather observation airship. [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to the KA-1 pilot’s visual identification during flight, the object resembled a commercial advertising balloon. It was shaped like a balloon with an object hanging below it, approximately 2 meters in vertical length, and was drifting with air currents without its own propulsion system. The military attempted to recover the object that fell into the sea, but due to the dangerous waters near the NLL and the small size of the object, it could not be retrieved.

Although the object crossed over from the North, military authorities have not ruled out the possibility that it originated from China, passed through North Korean territory, and then moved southward. Previously, China’s “reconnaissance balloons” were repeatedly discovered in places such as the United States and Taiwan. In February last year, a Chinese “reconnaissance balloon” that traversed the continental United States in a southeast direction was shot down over the airspace off the coast of South Carolina. At that time, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted operations using F-22 Raptors and destroyers, recovering the sunken balloon debris and reconnaissance data. Detailed investigations revealed that the balloon contained a mixture of U.S.-made imaging equipment and Chinese-made specialized equipment, with the Chinese equipment known to be specialized for intelligence gathering.