‘Nuclear power plants vulnerable to drones’
National infrastructure sites are vulnerable to possible drone strikes, with a growing number of intrusions at nuclear power plants here using the small unmanned aircraft being confirmed, according to a lawmaker, Sunday.
Rep. Lee Sang-min of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) reported 13 cases of the illegal flying of drones near the power plants from 2015 to 19.
Ten of the 13 cases occurred just in 2019 — and six took place near the Kori Nuclear Power Plant in northern Busan in August.
Referring to the recent drone attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, the lawmaker said the Aviation Safety Act needed to be revised to counter possible terrorist attacks using drones.
“According to the Aviation Safety Act, fines of up to 2 million won can be imposed on a drone pilot who attempts to breach a prohibited airspace, but only 250,000 won in fines were issued against some drone pilots and other cases were just dismissed for lack of evidence,” Lee said.
“As there’s a chance that the airspace near nuclear power plants could become a target of terrorist attacks, there should be tougher sanctions against the intrusions.”
Kim Yong-dae, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the country needed to improve laws and technology to counter personal drone use at national infrastructure sites.
“Many national infrastructure sites such as nuclear power plants or oil installations are vulnerable to drone attacks because the drones are too small to detect,” Kim said.
Kim, who has developed an antidrone technology that can hijack drones using fake GPS signals, urged a revision of the Radio Law to allow government agencies to use anti-drone technologies such as signal jamming.
“Even if we have the technology to find and engage signals from drones, we are not allowed to jam the signals from the aircraft under the existing Radio Law,” the professor said.