South Korea’s military has apologised for failing to shoot down five drones that North Korea flew across their mutual border on Monday. Seoul fired warning shots and sent jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the aircraft, one of which flew close to the capital. Despite a five-hour pursuit, the drones reportedly all returned to North Korea. South Korea’s President has said that the incident showed the military’s readiness was “greatly lacking”. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which represents the major branches of its armed services, acknowledged in a statement on Tuesday that while the military can counter “attack drones that pose a real threat”, it is limited in its ability to detect and strike smaller spy drones. “Our military’s lack of preparedness has caused a lot of concern to the people,” said a senior official, Kang Shin-chul. He added that the military would “actively employ detection devices to spot the enemy’s drone from an early stage and aggressively deploy strike assets”.(BBC)…[+]