Having fought each other in the 50s of the last century and having lived for the last seven decades in a state of "no peace, no war," the two Koreas - North and South - are again balancing on the verge of a full-scale conflict.
After the North Korean drones entered the airspace of a neighboring state, the South Korean military fired a hundred shells at the enemy UAVs and sent its own unmanned arsenal to the demarcation line replacing the border between the two states.
Part of the South Korean drones entered the territorial space of the DPRK.
As a result, the Korean peninsula, which has kept the whole world in suspense since the first days of January, is ending the year in the same way as it began, in a pre-war state.
These days, there are new strong reasons to believe that the Indo-Pacific region may rather blaze here than in Taiwan.
Drone flights, which at the end of December became part of the war of nerves and muscle flexing between Pyongyang and Seoul, are something new that had not been observed before in their many years of confrontation.
There were artillery duels, launches of balloons with propaganda literature, practice shootings, regular US-South Korean maneuvers, and numerous missile tests took place.
It was even rumored that Pyongyang was preparing for a nuclear test, which, however, has not happened yet.
But UAV flights are a new topic in the confrontation between the two Koreas, which reminds that this confrontation is taking on new forms.
In fact, if you think about it, there is nothing unusual about the fact that the Korean Peninsula is increasingly being sucked into the funnel of confrontation.
The situation was ripe, signs of an impending storm emerged in early December.
It was then that South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea would be officially declared an "enemy" in South Korea's new national security strategy, which would be made public very soon, next January.
What are we talking about?
In the coming weeks, the so-called White Paper of the Ministry of Defense of the country will be presented in Seoul.
This document, updated every two years, lists a list of national security priorities.
The surviving old South Korean national security strategy, adopted under former President Moon Jae-in, refers to North Korea with a milder formulation - "direct military threat".
However, the new president, Yoon Seok-yeol, who replaced Moon Jae-in in May of this year, has relied on a strategic alliance with the United States and a conversation with North Korea from a position of strength.
Under the new president in Seoul, the idea arose to toughen the wording of the White Paper, declaring Pyongyang an "enemy."
The military exercises of the United States and South Korea began to be accompanied by harsh statements against the north.
So is it any wonder that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent his drones to the south of the peninsula?
One of them even managed to fly over Seoul unhindered and returned home.
Four more drones have disappeared from the radar of the South Korean military.
And finally, most importantly, not a single North Korean drone has been shot down.
Draw your own conclusions.
This may have been the last Korean warning that Kim Jong-un sent to Seoul counterpart Yun Suk-yeol.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.