Tag: drones

It looks like the North Koreans have flown another drone over the DMZ:

South Korean troops fired warning shots at an “unidentified object” flying across the heavily fortified border from North Korea Tuesday afternoon, the South’s military announced.

The military detected the object traversing the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) southward in the Chorwon area in the eastern province of Gangwon at around 4 p.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

It added the South’s military fired warning shots along with dispatching a warning broadcast.

A defense source said the military fired more than 90 K-3 machine gun rounds, adding it may have been a drone.

The South’s military is analyzing the object and its route and has beefed up its air defense posture, said the JCS.  [Yonhap]

It looks like the ROK military needs to get themselves fielded with these systems to counter the drones North Korea is increasingly using.

#Asia's largest #drone show hits Busan this week from Thursday – Saturday. https://t.co/0gfkigosa2 #korea #busan #tech pic.twitter.com/RtPJ7SXbdq

— Busan Haps Magazine (@BusanHaps) January 16, 2017

Expert claims North Korea develops drone for dirty bomb attack https://t.co/fpj1BtyMfo

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) December 27, 2016

It looks like Songdo is the place to go for anyone looking to fly their drone in the Seoul area:

Songdo in Incheon has become a mecca for local drone developers as it is free of regulations banning the use of drones, making it become a hot spot for drone makers.

Songdo was created by reclaiming 32.3 square kilometers (12.4 square miles) of sea in a mega-project launched in 2003. It is largely free from regulatory measures, as there are no military installations near the area, since it used to be a vast coastal region covered by seawater prior to 2003.

The absence of legal obstacles to fly drones is a boon for gadget developers, as Seoul is ridden with regulations banning the use of drones to protect important facilities such as the presidential office and the government complex building. Gyeonggi is not exempt from state regulations because of its proximity to the inter-Korea border and the presence of military installations there.

“One big advantage to testing a drone in Songdo is that it is without no-fly zones, which are common in Seoul,” said Park Sang-gook, director of the research center for the drone manufacturer We Make Drone.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from L) watches a soldier holding a 1-meter-long drone during a recent visit to an army science and technology museum, in this photo released by a North Korean TV station on July 18, 2016. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

In this photo provided by the Yangyang county government, farmer Kim Kwang-seop sprays agricultural pesticides by using a drone on his paddies in the eastern county on June 8, 2015. Kim said he has completed the work in just five minutes with the drone, compared with more than 20 minutes with manual labor. The utilization of drones is on a gradual increase in the country’s agricultural sector. (Yonhap)

North Korean radar and anti-aircraft batteries along the DMZ would probably locate and take out a number of the drones.  I think such an idea would actually work better if executed by activist groups in China if they are able to not get cracked down on by the Chinese authorities:

A researcher has called on the United States to consider using drones to send USB sticks with information that can effectively win the hearts of North Koreans and provide them with information about the outside world.

Senior Researcher Kim Yon-ho at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies made the call in his recent contribution to Foreign Policy on Saturday.

Kim said that there are limitations to the conventional methods of smuggling high-tech data into North Korea, claiming that delivering USBs with drones is a high-tech alternative to traditional smuggling tactics.

The researcher said that due to the flourishing black market and technological developments, the means of access to outside media has advanced beyond televisions, radios, and DVDs into more interactive forms such as PCs, tablets and USB drives.

Kim said that USB drives are considered effective means of accessing information about the outside world, as they are smuggled through balloons and easily made available on the black market.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read the whole Foreign Policy article at this link.  The article pretty much makes the case that I have been making for year to execute a coordinated information warfare strategy within North Korea which should be part of a larger strategy to undermine the legitimacy of the Kim regime.

Via a reader tip comes news that North Korea flew a drone across the DMZ that the ROK military took shots at:

South Korea on Wednesday fired 20 machine gun warning shots after a North Korean drone briefly crossed the rivals’ border, officials said, the first shots fired in a Cold War-style standoff between the Koreas in the wake of the North’s nuclear test last week.

The North Korean drone was flying dozens of meters (yards) south of the border and turned back to the North after the South fired the shots, South Korean defense and military officials said, requesting anonymity because of office rules. The shots did not hit the drone.

North Korean drone flights across the world’s most heavily armed border are rare, but have happened before.

North Korea has in recent years touted its drone program, a relatively new addition to its arsenal. In 2013, state media said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had watched a drone attack drill on a simulated South Korean target.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

South Korea to develop stealth drones to bomb North Korea’s key military targets https://t.co/FQUh9Dsehg @korea_observer 님이 공유

— The Korea Observer (@koreaobserver) December 6, 2015

South Korea is looking to add further detection capabilities along the DMZ:

 As North Korea watchers look for signs of a missile launch in upcoming weeks, South Korea’s defense acquisition agency has announced it is producing “mini” drones for surveillance.

The drones, which will be distributed to South Korea’s army and marines in the next three years, have the ability to “surveil and transmit images on a real-time basis around the clock,” the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said in a statement.

The drones are 4.6 feet long, nearly 6 feet wide and can fly hour-long missions at speeds of up to 50 mph, Yonhap News reported.

Although DAPA’s statement did not mention North Korea, the drones are thought to be intended to monitor the Koreas’ tense land and sea border, which was the site of the latest provocation by Pyongyang last month. A land mine planted by the North exploded and maimed two South Korean soldiers while on routine patrol in the Demilitarized Zone.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.