PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has urged the authorities of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to take measures to ward off any infringement upon its sovereignty as in the case of drone incursion at the beginning of this year, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

In a press statement issued on Thursday, Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said that Jong Tong-yong, ROK's minister of unification, officially expressed regret on Tuesday over the case of drone intrusion into the DPRK that occurred at the outset of the new year, said the report.

"The ROK authorities are required to take preventive measures to surely guarantee that such serious infringement of sovereignty as violating the airspace of our Republic would never happen again, instead of seeking to gloss over with such mere expression of regret the crisis they brought," Kim was quoted as saying.

"Reoccurrence of such provocation as violating the inalienable sovereignty of the DPRK will surely provoke a terrible response," the DPRK official warned in the statement.