Security
North Korea bans WiFi at embassies
Sep 9th
North Korea has banned the use of satellite Internet connections and WiFi networks by foreign embassies and international organizations unless they get government approval.
The switch, which came in mid August, gives credibility to an earlier report that unencrypted wireless networks at embassies were being used by North Korean citizens to gain uncensored access to the Internet.
Foreign missions and aid agencies were notified of the change in policy on August 20 in a communique from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the full text of which was published on Monday by NK News.
In it, the country’s State Radio Regulatory Department said unlicensed WiFi More >
China detecting illegal border crossings with satellite
Aug 26th
China is using a high-resolution earth observation satellite to detect illegal border crossings from the DPRK, Chinese state media reported on Monday.
The Gaofen-1 satellite has been used to discover “about 10″ such crossings both on the China-DPRK border and in the Xinjiang Uygur region of northwest China, said China Daily reported, quoting the China National Space Administration.
The satellite has also been used to spot poppy plantations in Heilongjiang and Hebei provinces, marijuana growing in Jilin province and suspected oil smuggling off the coast of Fujian province.
Gaofen-1 was launched in April 2013 and is capable of taking images with 2-meter resolution, according to published specifications. More >
DPRK takes Ulchi war games protest to UN
Aug 23rd
North Korea has taken its protest of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian war games to the United Nations.
Ja Song Nam, the DPRK’s ambassador to the U.N. sent a letter earlier this week to the president of the Security Council protesting the exercise, which is due to begin this weekend and involves thousands of troops in a large-scale computer simulation of a military action on the Korean peninsula.
Calling them “dangerous joint military exercises,” Ja wrote, “The United States-south [sic] Korea joint military exercises, including the ‘Ulji Freedom Guardian’, are by no means annual or routine exercises of a “defensive nature” but are More >
Ulchi Freedom Guardian means lots of computers
Aug 22nd
As a computer-based war-game, the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise that begins this week in South Korea requires lots and lots of computers.
In pictures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Defense, some of those computers and the complexity of the set-up can be seen. The images and a video show the inside of the Joint Operations Center for the exercise. It was built by the U.S. I Corps and Third Army of South Korea.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, I Corps Commanding General, is briefed by his staff in the I Corps joint operations center in Camp Yongin, South Korea, during a More >
First photos from Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2014
Aug 21st
The U.S. Department of Defense has released the first photos from the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2014 joint military exercise that has just begun in South Korea.
The computer-based exercise simulates South Korean defense of a North Korean attack and, not surprisingly, have North Korea angry.
The daily Rodong Sinmun wrote, “It is foolish and ridiculous if the U.S. and south Korean puppet forces calculate that they will get something through provocative Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises against the DPRK,” and said they won’t achieve anything. The editorial came a couple of weeks after the newspaper said North Korea’s own military exercises More >
World risks becoming “numb” to North Korean missile tests, says US admiral
Aug 1st
The top U.S. commander in the Pacific region says he’s worried that North Korea’s continued missile tests are helping establish them as something that’s normal.
Speaking during a news conference at The Pentagon on Tuesday, Admiral Sam Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said he was concerned that the international community was becoming “numb” to them.
“Over and over and over again, you see it and you become somewhat numb to it, immune to it, and you start to say, well, it’s not such a big deal,” he said.
North Korea has fired a number of missiles from bases across the country into the More >
North Koreans learn about China’s Beidou satellite navigation system
Jul 31st
Engineers from North Korea and seven other nations are being given training in technology related to China’s Beidou (Compass) satellite navigation system this week, according to Chinese media reports.
The engineers are attending a course in Hubei province being put on by the National Remote Sensing Center. The organization is part of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and is charged with development of the Beidou system.
Beidou is a satellite navigation system developed to reduce Chinese reliance on the U.S. Navstar Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. It’s one of several new satellite navigation networks being launched to supplement the American system. Satellite navigation has More >
US missile shield to cost $5.8 billion over next five years
Jul 26th
The planned expansion of the U.S. missile defense shield to guard against potential threats from North Korea and other nations will cost $5.8 billion over the coming years, according to an estimate released this week.
The estimate was made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in response to a question from Jeff Sessions, a Republican senator for Alabama and a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. They examine the cost of the system over the last few years and its likely cost over the coming five years.
It reveals that the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program has cost just under $9 More >
What’s going on with North Korean airspace?
Jul 25th
The shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine has raised awareness of a series of restrictions the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has placed on aircraft operating around the world, including over North Korea.
North Korean airspace extends well beyond the land borders of the country to include a large portion of the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and, to a lesser extent, a region over the Yellow Sea (West Sea.) It’s called the Pyongyang FIR (flight information region) and is shown in the map below.
The FAA regulations date back to April 1997, when North Korea began allowing foreign airlines to fly through its airspace. That included U.S. carriers, but More >
US, others complain to ICAO over North Korean missile launches
Jul 17th
The United States and several other nations have written to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) over North Korea’s failure to notify it of missile launches.
Over the past couple of weeks, short and medium-range missile have been fired by North Korea into the sea to the east of the country on a handful of occasions. Each launch took place without a standard warning to air and ship traffic.
Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Dept., answers questions at a briefing on July 16, 2014.
“On July 8, the U.S. co-signed a letter to the president of ICAO expressing concern with the serious threat posed to international aviation posed by More >
