The near-intercept incident on July 30 near the armistice line in Paju, Gyeonggi Province—where U.S. military drones participating in a joint drill were mistaken for an unidentified flight vehicle—was revealed to have stemmed from communication errors between working-level officials of the South Korea-U.S. military authorities.

An official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that the U.S. military notified only a working-level official belonging to the South Korean Army's 1st Corps via a mobile text message about the flight plan a day before the drill. The commotion occurred because this staffer failed to disseminate or report the U.S. plan to superiors or higher headquarters.