At this point you just have to assume that any Chinese made electronic device has the ability to spy on you and that includes the Chinese made smartphone in your pocket:

South Korea’s military has been forced to remove more than 1,300 surveillance cameras from its bases after learning that they could be used to transmit signals to China, Yonhap news agency reported.

The cameras, which were supplied by a South Korean company, “were found to be designed to be able to transmit recorded footage externally by connecting to a specific Chinese server”, the outlet reported an unnamed military official as saying.Korean intelligence agencies discovered the cameras’ Chinese origins in July during an examination of military equipment, Yonhap said.

While some of the cameras were near the border with North Korea, they weren’t monitoring it and were instead focused on training bases and fences, the official said.

South China Morning Post

You can read more at the link.

A business deal that went bad led to an attempted murder:

The Seoul High Court said recently it upheld a six-year prison term for a 67-year-old North Korean defector for the attempted murder of another defector over a faulty investment opportunity.

A defendant was found guilty of attempted murder, after he stabbed the 70-year-old victim nine times and assaulted him with his fist at 11:40 p.m. on Nov. 14. The court turned down his claim of not intending to murder the victim, pointing out that he called the police after the crime and said he had “just committed murder today.”

The victim recovered after six weeks of medical treatment.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This seems more like the Kim regime trying to keep up with the Jones instead of providing any real capability enhancements for the North Korean military. These early warning aircraft if ever completed, would quickly be shot down during any conflict on the peninsula by U.S. and ROK forces:

 North Korea appears to be making progress in converting a Russian heavy transport plane into what could be the country’s first airborne early warning (AEW) platform, a report showed Wednesday, citing commercial satellite imagery.

Joseph Dempsey, a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, made the analysis based on recent satellite imagery taken of the Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.

In the report, Dempsey identified the aircraft as one of three Il-76s the North received from Russia in the 1990s, noting its fuselage had until recently been under a covered structure, suggesting a “possible special-mission role” for the airframe.

Satellite imagery taken on Sept. 8, however, showed the aircraft uncovered, with two vertical struts on the plane “consistent with a possible radar-dome mounting.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea once again trying to stay in the headlines and are probably hoping to become a Presidential campaign topic. However, they are going to have to do something much more provocative than this to get the Presidential attention they crave:

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles in a northeastern direction on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, further ratcheting up tensions already heightened by its rare disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility last week.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches at about 6:50 a.m. from the North’s Kaechon area in South Phyongan Province, north of Pyongyang, and the missiles flew about 400 kilometers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I would support a national service program as long as the military is not the only option:

The nation’s leaders should push harder for America’s youth to participate in public service, including in the military, as the Pentagon copes with recent recruiting shortfalls, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday.

The retired four-star Marine general called on top leaders across the country to implore public service on young Americans as the nation faces an increasingly volatile world and global power challenges from adversaries such as China and Russia. Mattis visited with some of those young Americans on Thursday during a stop at Georgia Military College, an independent, public kindergarten through 12th grade preparatory school and junior college with associate and bachelor’s degree programs.

“How many times have you heard the elected commander in chief, or your senators, or your governors or other elected officials say, ‘Uncle Sam needs you,’” Mattis told reporters before giving a speech on leadership at the school in Milledgeville, Ga. “I don’t care if it’s the Marine Corps, the Peace Corps, teaching, there’s any number of ways to serve our country … Do we really have an expectation today that each of our young people owes something to the country? I think it’s a lot bigger problem than just in the military.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I agree with Mattis that a national service program would be beneficial to the country. Mattis brings up the Peace Corps as an option, but I think a national service program should focus more on programs to improve America not a foreign country. A program I think would be beneficial is bringing back the Civilian Conservation Corps that was a that was responsible for building many public works projects in America’s rural spaces.

I also think a national service program should not be mandatory which means it needs an incentive. I think the incentive could be tuition assistance or a small business grant that gives young people an early advantage in life for completing national service compared to those who did not.

Any thoughts from fellow ROK Heads?