Via the Stars and Stripes comes this YouTube video which shows when the two ROK Army soldiers were hit by the planted North Korean landmine:
Here is what experts in the article had to say about detecting such infiltrations:
A South Korean military official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said that while South Korean troops aggressively monitor the border with advanced surveillance equipment and their naked eyes, their ability to monitor some portions of the DMZ is limited.
North and South Korean troops man outposts along the Military Demarcation Line, often in forested areas.
“It’s very difficult to keep watch there for 24 hours a day, especially if it’s rainy or foggy,” said Kim Seongmin, a defector and former North Korean military officer who now heads Free North Korea Radio. “If North Korean troops want to violate the armistice agreement, they can do it there,” he said.
An Chanil, who was stationed at the DMZ as a platoon sergeant in the North Korean army, agreed.
“Nobody can see everywhere,” said An, who defected in 1979 and is now president of the World Institute for Korea Studies, a Seoul-based think tank.
He said ordinary North Korean soldiers would have difficulty crossing the demarcation line, though specially trained reconnaissance soldiers could do so with ease.
You can read more at the link, but this is why any North Korean soldiers caught violating the armistice should be shot on site. In the past warning shots were fired when they were caught crossing the DMZ. It is now time to start attriting their operatives who are specially trained for these missions. That will be a deterrent to continuing to launch such attacks.
Sounds like another news item that Park Sang-hak and his team should send across the DMZ for North Korean citizens to read about:
Two satellite images were compared to produce the analysis on Kim Jong Un’s Residence No. 15: the first from Jan. 14 and the second from May 20 show the progress on the roof and the garden. Photo by Yonhap
An extravagant mansion for former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that cost Pyongyang tens of millions of dollars to build in 2010 has been torn down, and new construction is underway, according to satellite images from May.
The No. 15 Official Residence where Kim Jong Un‘s mother, Ko Young Hee, once lived also is the childhood home of the current North Korean leader.
Curtis Melvin of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, who used the satellite imagery in his analysis, told Radio Free Asia the roof on the north side of the building has been torn down and a landscaping project has begun in a garden section of the compound, South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported.
Two satellite images were compared to produce the analysis: the first from Jan. 14 and the second from May 20 show the progress on the roof and the garden.
The residence cost tens of millions of dollars to build five years ago, and roads and railways for the former leader’s exclusive use also were built. Underground tunnels for electric trains are connected to office buildings in the compound. [UPI]
You can read more at the link, but you have to love the power that Google Earth provides average citizens to note things like this.
The ROK probably should have never stopped clearing shrubbery around the DMZ in the first place considering North Korea’s long history of border incursions and provocations:
Han’s remarks came as the South’s military is preparing to take preliminary steps to pave the way for offensive operations within the 250-kilometer stretch of the four-kilometer-wide buffer zone.
It is considering forest burning in some areas, an operational practice the South decided to stop in 2001 following inter-Korean working-level military talks.
An official explained that burning shrubs will help the military secure a view of North Korea’s guard posts and reconnaissance activities ahead of launching offensive operations within the area. The official said if it is conducted, the burning operation would be carried out in the fall to avoid southerly wind.
Amid such considerations, a South Korea-U.S. joint artillery live fire drill began on Wednesday.
Running through the end of this month, the drill will see the participation of cutting-edge weapons, including South Korea’s K-2 tanks and FA-50 fighter jets as well as the U.S.’ Paladin self-propelled howitzers, Apache helicopters and A-10 attack aircraft. [KBS World Radio]
It looks like the Kim regime’s propaganda department got what they wanted out of approving Aram Pan’s photography project inside North Korea:
Aram Pan in North Korea
This is the true story of North Korea through the eyes of Aram, a Singaporean photographer who has been using existing and the bleeding edge technologies to visually document North Korea.
Aram first applied to the North Korean government for permission to do a photography project in the “Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea” back in 2013.
“I figured the world has more images of the deep ocean depths than we have of North Korea. One day I just decided to try contacting them to see if I could do some kind of photography project in their country.”
He was surprised when his project got approved.
“The impression I originally had was that it would be tough to gain access with so many stories about undercover reporters allege they are risking their lives with hidden cameras.”
The latest addition to Aram’s kit is his modified go-pro hero 4 black that shoots 360 degree video footage. [Korea Observer]
Here is where Mr. Pan shows he is nothing more than a useful propaganda piece for the Kim regime:
Aram said he wants to exchange culture with North Koreans when practicable and also give interested viewers accurate insight into North Korea and its people.
“There are humans there. People with lives. Every life is precious,” he said.
“With this knowledge, I want the world to restrain their resentment against the country and consider first peaceful and friendly options to engage them. If we can create an environment and atmosphere of love, it will be felt on all sides.”
In a lot of Aram’s work there is vast space and few people.
“North Koreans have the strange habit of wanting places to look clear and clean. That results in them clearing out the locals when I do some of my shoots.”
Aram attempts to capture the everyday nature of the average North Korean.
“In the new north eastern areas, [guides] wonder why I want to photograph farmers at work. ‘They are all dirty. Not make good photos’ the guides will say.
There are also some areas in North Korea where tourists are told they are not allowed to have their cameras out or do not get access to.
Aram said that so far he has not seen evidence of labor camps or persecution.
“We already have some of the most high tech satellites in space that can photograph galaxies light-years away in ultra high resolution. I’m sure if they really wanted to, they could simply snap a few shots of the labor camps and publish them anytime. So I’m just focusing on the humans going about their daily lives.”
First of all Mr. Pan needs to take a lesson in what the size of the aperture for an imagery satellite that can take pictures of North Korean concentration camps where you can make out in detail what is going on. The Hubble Space Telescope is very different from an imagery satellite. Secondly the imagery satellites that are available have taken pictures of the suspected camps. If the Kim regime is so great why doesn’t Mr. Pan put into to do a photo project of these suspected prison camps. He would be doing the world a far greater service doing a 360 photo shoot of a suspected concentration camp than the selected Kim regime propaganda sites.
So basically what you have here is another naive individual with undoubtedly good intentions being played by the Kim regime propaganda department. Not only is he allowing himself to be played, but he is even paying the regime an expensive sum of money to do so.
According to the below article there is not much that the South Koreans can do in regards to the recent mine attack that wounded two South Korean troops. I disagree, just for starters the ROK government should have Park Sang-hak and his team on speed dial to go launch some of their propaganda balloons with DVDs of “The Interview” on them. Announcing government funding for defector radio stations is another option. The biggest trump card the ROK government has is to end the near-slave labor operation going on at Kaesong that is a major Kim regime cash cow:
South Korea announced a series of measures this week aimed at deterring another North Korean land mine attack, from broadcasting anti-Pyongyang messages across the Demilitarized Zone to changing patrol times for its soldiers.
But in a climate where military officials fear that even the smallest exchange of fire could escalate into a full-blown conflict, there might be little Seoul will do to punish the North or discourage further provocations, some experts say.
Two South Korean soldiers were maimed Aug. 4 after triggering several recently planted land mines during a routine morning patrol at the DMZ, near Paju. The blasts happened about 1,440 feet south of the Military Demarcation Line, which marks the actual border between the two Koreas. One of the soldiers lost his legs, and the other lost a foot.
The land mine attack, while tragic, is a relatively minor incident in the larger picture of inter-Korean relations, and the appropriate response for Seoul is unclear, said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.
“It’s this real kind of gray area that doesn’t rise to the level of triggering some kind of military counter attack,” he said.
South Korean forces will vary patrol times so they cannot be tracked by North Korea, and will increase the number of search and reconnaissance missions along the DMZ. Troops will also conduct a sweep for additional land mines this month, and will toughen engagement rules for North Korean troops who cross into the South’s territory, according to South Korean media reports Tuesday. [Stars & Stripes]
This photo, released on Aug. 11, 2015, by the Defense Ministry, shows loudspeakers that South Korea has installed at a unidentified site on the western front-line bordering North Korea to resume its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasting. The resumption of the loudspeaker campaign is in retaliation of a the North’s bloody mine detonation on South Korean soldiers on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone in Paju, north of Seoul, on Aug. 4. (Yonhap)
I have for many years advocated for fighting an information war within North Korea since the early days of financing defector radio stations to broadcast into North Korea. Challenging the Kim regime’s domestic propaganda should be a primary part of any strategy to counter North Korea. Challenging the propaganda directly challenges the Kim regime’s legitimacy. That is why the Kim regime has been so violently outspoken against the activities of defector groups that have launched balloons into North Korea to include even trying to assassinate the group’s primary leader, Park Sang-hak. Recently when I read about Facebook’s new effort to use drones to give Internet access to remote areas of the world the first thing I thought of was North Korea:
Facebook started teasing its internet-beaming planes last year, but now we’re seeing one that it actually built. Pictured above is Aquila, a solar-powered, 140-foot unmanned plane that’s designed to deliver internet connectivity from altitudes of 60,000 to 90,000 feet. The UAV, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 and weighs roughly 880 pounds, will be able to circle a specific area for up to 90 days when deployed — a feat possible thanks to its dependence on nothing but solar energy.
The Kim regime has been very active in doing everything possible to stem the tide of outside information entering North Korea. Excluding the border areas where most of the defectors come from, the Kim regime has been very effective with controlling information entering North Korea while expanding access to technology. The Kim regime has expanded computer and smartphone use while simultaneously creating an its own cell phone network and Intranet to control the flow of information. The fact that border areas can use cell phone towers in China contributes to the fact more defectors come from these areas.
Imagine if everyone in North Korea was able to access an outside information network like the border areas can do using Chinese cell phone towers? That is what Facebook’s drones may be able to do. Facebook is not the only ones pursuing this technology; Google has their own program to provide Internet to remote areas using balloons. The drones and balloons fly at altitudes greater than any aircraft North Korea has can intercept, however right now it is unclear whether they can fly at a standoff distance greater than North Korea’s anti-aircraft missiles can target the drone or balloon with. If the technology advances to where a drone or balloon could hover over the center of the Sea of Japan and beam Internet access into North Korea, the Kim regime would not be able to target it. What effect over the long term would that have in North Korea if citizens could secretly access the Internet without the Kim regime knowing?
Vigorously going after companies doing business with North Korea should be the centerpiece of any policy seeking to put pressure on the Kim regime, however small punishments like this are not going to dissuade companies from continuing to business with the regime:
The U.S. Department of Treasury fined a New York based company $271,000 on Thursday for insuring North Korean ships between 2008 and 2011.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the company, called Navigation, was responsible for 48 sanctions violations involving vessels from Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
“Between May 8, 2008 and April 1, 2011, Navigators and its London, U.K. branch (“Navigators U.K.”) issued global protection and indemnity (“P&I”) insurance policies that provided coverage to North Korean-flagged vessels,” the OFAC press release reads.
Representatives from Navigator’s Chinese and London offices declined to comment on the news.
According to the OFAC statement, over the course of three years North Korea paid Navigator more than $1 million for 24 insurance policies. The company also paid out over $12,000 for seven claims during the same period.
Navigation cooperated with OFAC and took action quickly, which in part mitigated the fine.
Exactly who insures North Korean ships has been the cause of much speculation, with a minimum level of coverage mandatory in order to make use of foreign ports and international waterways. [North Korea News]
