The Democratic People's Republic of Korea - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION
Electronic warfare has helped expand the limits of collection methods, but countermeasures have also been developed. The result is electronically influenced collection as compared to conventional techniques of the Cold War era. The biggest problem, however, is the awareness of operational capabilities and the functioning of US intelligence collection methods. The targets are, therefore, much smaller, quieter, quicker, and hidden. In simple, they are hard to penetrate. On the other hand, intelligence against the US has become much easier because of the sizeable army and open movement of forces. The forces are exposed to possible espionage activities even by smaller adversaries.

North Korea, if taken into account, has considerably limited assets to counter South Korea and in particular, the US. The country depends mainly on conventional intelligence collection methods and has limited surveillance equipment. The economic situation is the main reason behind this limitation. The country, however, considers the army as a major pillar of its stability and operates on military-first politics (Silberman and Robb 2005, 354). Intelligence-gathering methods are discussed along with possible future developments.

OSINT
Open-source intelligence is the main source for intelligence agencies against the US and South Korea. The sources include news media and in particular the internet. It requires minimal resources and is the easiest source of information for North Korean intelligence agencies. News agencies readily report debates and discussions; furthermore, the internet makes it difficult to conceal matters related to intelligence. North Korea, on the other hand, is very secretive and its media is strictly state-controlled (Karlekar and Larchant 2007, 234).

SIGINT
The country has limited sources for Signals Intelligence. The main reason is the lack of a satellite system, however, the country has a possible satellite monitoring system (North Korea Tech). On the more conventional front, the signal setup has been deployed in close proximity to South Korea. These sites are used to eavesdrop, mainly on UHF radio communication signals. The US uses electronic encryption to code its radio messages; however, the South Koreans mostly rely on conventional encryption. North Korean SIGINT sites have conventional crypto logic capabilities. These sites are still operating on decades-old technology and are easy to maintain, but are useful against South Korea.

Recent developments, however, point towards investment in the sector. North Korea had procured GPS jamming units from Russia but modified these units to increase their range and mobility (Kwan 2011). These particular steps have been taken against the US to interfere with the signals of reconnaissance planes. The jamming facilities are deployed around Pyongyang and limited resources are available outside. Though, these steps are passive in nature and towards intelligence prevention rather than collection methods; they show the intent and interest of the country in the field. Recent developments have been in the discipline of COMINT or Communications Intelligence. This includes computer hacking. Network security is a big issue and US intelligence organizations have been a target of cyber attacks in the past. State-run groups are much more developed and North Korea has been blamed for hacking US and South Korean organizations on different occasions (Arquilla and Borer 2007, 205).

GOING
North Korea lacks intelligence-gathering sources for Geo-Spatial Intelligence. The main sources for imagery analysis are satellites and reconnaissance planes or drones. On this front, North Korea is completely blind to military ground activities on US soil and therefore, compensates through efforts in OSINT and SIGINT. The country, however, is scheduled to launch its first indigenous observation satellite on April 12, 2012 (The Guardian). If successful, this development points to future development in the field of GEOINT. Currently, North Korea relies on conventional aircraft for aerial reconnaissance, but reports have suggested that it is developing an attack drone with limited reconnaissance abilities, based on the design of a US target drone (Defense Tech).

HUMINT
Human Intelligence has been the conventional collection method to obtain and confirm the information on the ground. North Korea depends primarily on HUMINT for collection against South Korea, but its capabilities are limited against the US (Interagency OPSEC Support Staff 1996, 30).