South Korea scrambled jet fighters and launched attack helicopters after five North Korean drones breached its airspace for the first time in five years on Monday.

South Korea’s military spotted the drones crossing the heavily fortified Military Demarcation Zone between the two countries and one traveled as far as just north of the capital Seoul.

The other drones remained near the west coast.
“This is a clear act of provocation by the North violating our airspace,” Lee Seung-o, a South Korean official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing Monday.

The South Korean choppers fired about 100 rounds at the drones, but it’s unclear if any of the North Korean aircraft were downed.

Several civilian airports were shut down temporarily.

One of the South Korean planes, a KA-1 light attack aircraft – crashed during takeoff. The pilots ejected safely.

South Korea also flew surveillance aircraft across the border to photograph military facilities in North Korea.

The incursion is the first by North Korean drones since 2017. The aircraft, a drone with a mounted camera, was found on a mountain near the border.

The latest intrusion came just days after South Korea detected two short-range ballistic missile launches by North Korea, another in a series of test-firings this year by leader Kim Jong-un’s regime.