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]
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]
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?
Maybe in the future we will see teenage gangs doing drive byes of each using drones considering this teenager was able to make one fire a gun:
A teenager may be in trouble with federal aviation officials after posting online a video that shows shots being fired from a drone that had been rigged to carry a handgun.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it was investigating whether 18-year-old Austin Haughwout, of Clinton, violated its regulations, which prohibit the careless or reckless operation of a model aircraft.
Haughwout’s father told WFSB-TV last week that his son created the drone with the help of a Central Connecticut State University professor. The 14-second video shows a four-propeller drone with a semiautomatic handgun strapped on top hovering as it fires four shots in a wooded area. [Associated Press]
If you are going to Yongsan Garrison you better leave your drones at home:
The U.S. military stationed in South Korea has introduced stricter security rules banning all civilian drones and remote controlled model aircrafts from flying over the main military base in Yongsan in central Seoul, a South Korean military source said Thursday.
The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) issued a total ban in late December on all unmanned aerial vehicles or radio-controlled model aircrafts equipped with a camera or other types of information-gathering devices on the entire premise of the Yongsan Garrison. “The flight ban involves all computer- or radio-controlled civilian drones and toy model aircrafts, except for military drones authorized by the U.S. military,” a military source in Seoul said.
According to the source, those who own radio-controlled model aircrafts can fly only in extremely limited zones after registering them with the U.S. military for permits. Under the stricter rules, only those at age 13 or older are allowed to fly model aircrafts in authorized zones to a maximum altitude of 100 feet above ground. The USFK said violators would be “dealt sternly” in accordance with the military and civilian legal procedures. [Donga Ilbo via reader tip]
Displayed at a booth at “Internet of Things Fair 2014 ” in Seoul on Nov. 5, 2014, is a drone capable of transmitting real-time pictures through a long-term evolution (LTE) network. (Yonhap)
