A graduate student who built drones and flew them into North Korea without permission received a suspended prison term at the first trial.
The Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 38-3, presided over by judges Choi Young-gak, Chang Seong-jin and Jung Su-young, sentenced the student, identified only by his surname Oh, to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, on charges brought against him for aiding the enemy and violating the Aviation Safety Act. Two co-defendants — a drone manufacturer surnamed Chang and a North Korea affairs director surnamed Kim — each received six months in prison, suspended for two years.
The court found the defendants guilty of violating the Aviation Safety Act but cleared them of the aiding-the-enemy charge. "It cannot be concluded that militarily useful information was leaked, and therefore it cannot be said that military interests were harmed," the court said.
Oh was indicted and detained in March on charges of sending civilian drones across the Military Demarcation Line on four occasions between September last year and January this year, evading South Korean air defense surveillance, and having them fly over the Kaesong area of North Korea to film video footage. Chang and Kim, accused of taking part in the scheme, were indicted without detention. Two of the drones they launched failed to return and crashed in North Korea. Pyongyang recovered the wreckage and SD cards, analyzed the data, and issued a statement condemning the South based on the drones' flight logs and video footage.
