Deployment of Inspection Team Related to Vietnam on the Eastern Front by the County

On the 3rd, when the South and North Korean Red Cross exchanged requests for confirmation of the life and death of separated families, a North Korean military post in Yeonbaek-gun, Hwanghae Province, was observed beyond the barbed wire fence on Gyodongdo Island, Ganghwa-gun, Incheon. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung, Ganghwa

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The Joint Chiefs of Staff is reported to have dispatched a combat readiness inspection team in connection with the incident where someone crossed over the front-line fence in the eastern front of Gangwon Province. This is to investigate the operational situation of the unit and the status of surveillance equipment.

According to military officials on the 5th, the division involved is the same unit where the so-called "Knock Defection" occurred in October 2012, when a North Korean soldier knocked on the military outpost door to express his intention to defect.

The inspection team is expected to determine why the troop dispatch was delayed despite real-time monitoring with thermal observation devices (TOD) when a North Korean man climbed over the GOP (General Outpost) fence on the 3rd, and why the optical cable sensor installed on the fence did not operate. The scientific surveillance equipment installed at the front-line GOP is a system where sensors alert when a person or animal crosses or cuts the fence, and a 5-minute standby unit immediately dispatches, but this time it did not operate at all. When the Knock Defection incident occurred eight years ago, the military proposed adjusting and additionally installing surveillance equipment to minimize blind spots near the fence as a countermeasure.

Depending on the inspection team's findings, if problems are identified in operation or equipment maintenance, disciplinary actions are expected to follow. During the 2012 Knock Defection, the division commander, regiment commander, and battalion commander of the unit were successively dismissed from their posts. The Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are also reportedly instructing a comprehensive inspection of the operation status of scientific surveillance equipment installed at front-line units.

Kim Jun-rak, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained at the regular briefing that day, "We need to thoroughly examine at what point and for what reason the optical cable did not operate, or whether there is a functional problem," adding, "The Joint Chiefs of Staff will inspect and take measures to supplement the scientific surveillance system if necessary."

Meanwhile, due to this year's heavy rains, a total of 15.9 km of optical cable for GOP scientific surveillance equipment was lost or damaged. The longest lost section was 4.9 km in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province, followed by 4.6 km in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon Province, 1.5 km in Yanggu-gun, Gangwon Province, and 1.5 km in Inje-gun, Gangwon Province. Surveillance cameras were also damaged. In Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province, and Cheorwon, Hwacheon, and Inje-gun in Gangwon Province, parts of short-range and mid-range surveillance cameras were lost, rendering them nonfunctional.

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