Tag: North Korea

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.

Expect more nuclear rhetoric from Kim Jong-un because currently North Korea is largely being buried in the international headlines due to the Ukraine War and Palestine-Isareal conflict:

North Korea offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported Friday that leader Kim Jong Un visited the area and called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” increase the number of his nuclear weapons.

It’s unclear if the site is at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it’s the North’s first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010. While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the U.S. and its allies, the images North Korea’s media released of the area could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the North Koreans wanted to help the South celebrate Chuseok with a balloon show:

 North Korea on Sunday launched balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea for the second straight day, the South’s military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the latest launches, noting the balloons could travel toward the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, and the broader capital area.

The launch came after the North flew around 50 trash-carrying balloons toward the South from Saturday night to early Sunday, with about 10 trash bundles landing in Gyeonggi Province and Seoul, according to the JCS.

The JCS said the trash mostly consisted of paper, plastic bottles and other household garbage, while no hazardous substances have been found.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea’s war against the fish in the East Sea continues:

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday, the South Korean military said, a week after Pyongyang warned that South Korea and the United States will have to pay a “dear price” for their joint drills.

“The North Korean missiles flew about 360 kilometers and landed in the East Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. It said it detected the missiles launched from the Pyongyang area at 7:10 a.m., but it did not provide any further details, such as the number of missiles fired.

The distance, if fired southward, is sufficient to affect major South Korean cities such as Seoul and Daejeon as well as key military facilities in Gyeryong and Gunsan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like MCST got caught pushing out unverified reports as facts:

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) recently released a webtoon based on the “North Korea Human Rights Report” that included the claim, “30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas.”

However, the Unification Ministry, which published the actual human rights report, stated that no such information is included, raising suspicions that the MCST might have fabricated the news.

According to Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who is also a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the MCST published a webtoon titled “Talking About the Lives of North Korean Residents Through the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report” on July 30. The webtoon appeared on the “Korea Policy Briefing,” the official government website that introduces government policies.

In the webtoon, characters claim that “North Korea publicly executed 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas on USBs carried by balloons,” and “Not only that, but just recently, 30 teenagers around the age of 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment and execution for similar reasons.”

However, the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report, which the MCST cited as the basis for the webtoon, does not contain such information.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of a potential North Korean gray zone attack against South Korea. They have done these water releases before, sometimes with deadly results:

North Korea appears to have discharged a “considerable” amount of water from the upstream of its dam near the inter-Korean border, Seoul’s environment ministry said Wednesday.

Satellite imagery taken at 3 p.m. showed the downstream of the Imjin River had significantly broadened in width, according to the ministry.

The water level of the South Korea’s northernmost Pilseung Bridge on the Imjin River had reached 1 meter as of 5 p.m., up from 0.3 meter recorded three hours before.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

We now know likely why a fire was started by one of North Korea’s trash balloons that landed on a building in South Korea:

Timer devices on some North Korean trash-carrying balloons could cause fires, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, amid a series of fires in the country suspected to be caused by the balloons.

On Monday, firefighters put out a blaze that began on the rooftop of a warehouse in Paju, 27 kilometers northwest of Seoul, after a North Korean trash balloon landed there, renewing concerns whether the balloons or the substances they drop could be a fire hazard.

A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson said some North Korean balloons have dropped bundles of trash using devices that heat up and disconnect the garbage after a certain period of time, noting they could lead to fires if they land on surfaces without properly separating.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but clearly this incident shows how the trash balloons can be weaponized to become a more provocative gray zone weapon. Similar to the Imperial Japanese using balloons to start forest fires in the Pacific Northwest during World War II, these trash balloons could easily be used to start forest fires in South Korea.

Even worse would be if these balloons were launched during conflict to complicate aviation and integrated air and missile defense targeting over South Korea. These balloons clearly have a lot more military potential than just the nuisance they appear to be today.