Military Doubles North Korea Surveillance Starting Today...All Reconnaissance Aircraft Mobilized

The improved Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft is scheduled to make its maiden flight on the 8th at TSTC Airport in Waco, Texas, USA, led by the American defense company L3.

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu Reporter] Military intelligence authorities have decided to more than double surveillance and reconnaissance activities against North Korea starting from the 17th.

According to government officials, the military plans to increase surveillance and reconnaissance activities more than twofold from that day to respond to potential military conflict situations after North Korea effectively announced measures to nullify the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement.

Our military plans to simultaneously utilize reconnaissance aircraft such as Geumgang and Baekdu (RC-800), and Saemae (RF-16). The RF-16, nicknamed "Saemae," flies over the airspace near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the Northern Limit Line (NLL) to collect video intelligence related to North Korean forces. Normally, the Saemae reconnaissance aircraft flies once a day, but since the liaison office was blown up on the 16th, it has been deployed to the emergency standby team, increasing flights to twice a day. However, since it takes a long time to analyze the footage, there are plans to increase the number of flights of the Geumgang and Baekdu (RC-800) reconnaissance aircraft as well. The Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft, upgraded in 2017, can capture North Korea's electronic intelligence (Elint) and communications intelligence (Comint), detecting equipment operations such as radar activation and the contents of wired and wireless communications.

The military is also considering deploying the Global Hawk. Last month, a video intelligence processing system (target shooting → analysis → information transmission) capable of acquiring and analyzing video intelligence was introduced domestically, enabling video analysis. However, the Global Hawk takes 60 seconds to capture one image, limiting continuous shooting. To secure video intelligence across the entire North Korean territory, about 2,500 images must be taken, which takes roughly over 40 hours. For this reason, even if the Global Hawk is introduced, there is an opinion that reliance on U.S. military reconnaissance satellites for North Korea's key military developments will be inevitable.

The Army plans to fully operate surveillance systems such as thermal observation devices (TOD), coastal radars, and coastal composite cameras in the frontline areas. Our military's GOP scientific warning system will also strengthen its vigilance. The warning system consists of radar, surveillance cameras, thermal observation devices, and optical fiber networks. The Army decided to enhance day and night surveillance of mid-range and short-range cameras after North Korea declared it would redeploy military units to surveillance posts (GP).

Shin Won-sik, a member of the Future United Party and former deputy chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued, "If North Korea unilaterally breaks the military agreement, our military should also lift the no-fly zone and significantly strengthen surveillance and reconnaissance to monitor North Korea's movements based on reciprocity."

Meanwhile, as the situation related to North Korea rapidly unfolds, the National Assembly's National Defense Committee canceled the scheduled briefing by the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the 17th. Originally, the National Defense Committee planned to receive reports from the Ministry of National Defense and the military regarding the explosion of the inter-Korean joint liaison office building at this plenary session.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.