Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
https://twitter.com/thejointstaff/status/647129992745340929
This provided photo shows black smoke billowing from a food-making plant in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul, on Sept. 17, 2015, as the three-story building is engulfed by a fire. No casualties were reported. (Yonhap)
Via One Free Korea comes this news that the Kim regime has supposedly up their detection capability of Chinese cell phone signals originating within North Korea by using German technology:
According to local sources, North Korean authorities have recently begun carrying small, German manufactured radar detectors when patrolling near the Chinese border for the purpose of monitoring international phone calls made on Chinese-made cell phones.
These intensified measures follow a proliferation of stationary detectors installed in North Hamgyong Province in conjunction with enhanced wiretapping technology, as previously reported by Daily NK. [Daily NK]
You can read more at the link to include over at One Free Korea who has good commentary about this issue. Considering all the shell companies the North Koreans have it would probably be very difficult for German companies to prevent the cell of such devices, but it definitely should be investigated.
If any of you ROK Heads living in Korea feel the need to purchase your very own THAAD missile defense system to put in your backyard to protect you from Kim Jong-un’s missiles, it would set you back only $2.5 billion:
Deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula would cost around US$2.5 billion, the Air Force Chief of Staff said on Sept. 22.A propeller from the 1,800-ton top-of-the-line submarine Ahn Jung-geun was also reportedly replaced five years after its introduction because of 151 cracks found on it.Newly appointed Air Force Chief of Staff Jeong Kyeong-doo responded to questions on the cost of THAAD deployment from New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) lawmaker Kim Kwang-jin during a National Assembly National Defense Committee parliamentary audit on Sept. 22 at Air Force headquarters at Gyeryongdae, South Chungcheong Province.“It would be around plus or minus three trillion won (US$2.53 billion), although nothing precise has been given yet,” Jeong said. [Hankyoreh]
You can read the rest at the link, but I think the ROK Air Force chief is just setting conditions on why the US military should provide the system for the ROK instead of purchasing it out right.
Activity detected at the launch pad at #NorthKorea's Sohae launch facility, but its purpose is unclear http://t.co/oKADTmD1WW
— 38 North (@38NorthNK) September 24, 2015
This photo, taken on Sept. 20, 2015, by the Fighters for Free North Korea, an anti-Pyongyang activist group, shows a balloon that contains leaflets denouncing the hereditary power succession in the North, flying toward North Korea in the South Korean border city of Paju. The group said the next day it sent 200,000 leaflets on 10 balloons to protest against its moves to launch nuclear and missile tests amid opposition from the international community. (Yonhap)
This decision makes me wonder if this technology transfer denial has anything to do with how the ROK military continues to have issues keeping classified information secret?:
South Korea’s plan to receive technology transfers from Lockheed Martin in exchange for purchasing F-35 stealth fighters has partly been scrapped due to rejection by the U.S. government.
New Politics Alliance for Democracy Rep. Ahn Gyu-baek said that the U.S. rejected the export of four technologies, including the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system, among 25 core technologies that were to have been transferred.
The military had planned to load the AESA radar, which is more capable of detecting targets than existing radars, on South Korean fighter jets.
Minister Chang Myoung-jin of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said at a parliamentary audit on Thursday that the agency is pursuing both domestic development and international cooperation to develop new technologies following the rejection from the United States.
DAPA is said to be seeking to independently develop the AESA radar and infrared search technologies and jointly develop comprehensive technologies for electromagnetic interference equipment with a European corporation.
A DAPA official said although Lockheed didn’t fulfill its contract terms, there is no way to impose sanctions as the U.S. government rejected the deal. [KBS World Radio]
The new ROK Air Force Chief of Staff is pretty much continuing the ROK military’s stance which of being cautious about the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
Newly appointed Air Force Chief of Staff Jeong Kyeong-doo took a cautious stance on the possible deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.
During the parliamentary defense committee’s audit of the Air Force Headquarters on Tuesday, Jeong said that there are pros and cons about deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.
He made the remarks when ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min asked if he approves the US Forces Korea’s deployment of the THAAD battery.
The Air Force chief of staff said basic conditions should be satisfied to deploy the missile system. He said that the system will be effective only when South Korea and the United States establish an integrated intelligence system, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets to identify and intercept missiles from North Korea immediately. [KBS World Radio]
You can read the rest at the link.
https://twitter.com/RimjingangNK/status/646262347191861248
