North Korean intelligence operations and activities

North Korean Intelligence:

Throughout its history, North Korea has continued to harass South Korea for as long as these countries have been separated by imaginary line and roadblocks. Since the country invasion upon South Korea in June 1950, North Korea has been a thorn in the daily lives of South Koreans. North Korea has been able to maintain such relations because of intelligence collection capabilities on the Korean Peninsula. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea has a comprehensive intelligence gathering structure and several people conducting the intelligence operations. The three main agencies in the intelligence unit are the Ministry for Protection of State Security, Korean Workers Party, and the military intelligence arm.

North Korea's Intelligence Collection Methods:

One of the most evident aspects regarding North Korea is that the country seems to be in a constant mission to gather intelligence on the Korean Peninsula. This is largely because the country's intelligence and security agencies are enhancing their operations against South Korea. Actually, North Korea adopted a strategy that is geared towards combining the intelligence and security organs under the powerful National Defense Commission in its 2009 to 2010 re-organization.

North Korea's intelligence collection capabilities are a direct reflection of the various missions undertaken by the country and its ability to carry out such operations (Erickson, 2009). North Korea's gathers intelligence against South Korea and the United States on the Korean Peninsula though various methods that enable the country to accomplish its missions. Some of the most commonly used techniques for intelligence collection by North Korea include:

Reconnaissance Bureau:

This is one of the methods for intelligence collection as the Reconnaissance Bureau of the General Staff Department is mandated with the task of gathering strategic, tactical, and operational intelligence for North Korea's Ministry of the People's Armed Forces. This department accomplishes its mission by infiltrating intelligence personnel into South Korea through tunnels in seaborne insertion and demilitarized zones. These special operations and intelligence personnel were established to breach South Korea's fixed defense, develop a second force in the enemy's territory, and carry out strategic and battlefield investigations (Pike, n.d.).

Spying Agencies and Missions:

The second major technique used by North Korea in intelligence collection is through spying agencies and spying missions, which are conducted by various spies. In 2009, the country scrapped two of its spy agencies to strengthen a third agency under the Ministry of Defense. The main aim of the spy agencies is to enhance the military authority and capability to conduct its missions. Spying agencies and missions help in enhancing the military's control in intelligence-collection and lessening redundancy.

Cyber Warfare Unit:

North Korea's intelligence collection capabilities include the use of a cyber warfare unit that attempts to hack into South Korea and the United States military networks. These hacking attempts by the country's cyber warfare unit are for the purpose of collecting confidential information that could be beneficial in disrupting service. In the past few years, North Korea's military expanded the cyber warfare unit that included staffing the unit with approximately 100 personnel.

Cell-Phone Usage Detection:

The other intelligence collection technique used by North Korea on the Korean Peninsula is the detection of cell-phone usage. The country strengthened the detection of cell-phone usage when 40 agents of National Security Agency inspection group were posted to Shinuiji (Jin, 2007). The country's authorities have installed mobile phone detectors on its northern border in attempts to thwart further defectors from leaving the country.

Strengths of North Korea's Intelligence Collection Capabilities:

While North Korea has limited technical capabilities of intelligence gathering as compared to those of South Korea and the United States, the country's existing intelligence collection capabilities have certain strengths including:

Effectiveness of Cellular Phone Tracking Methods:

One of the major strengths of North Korea's intelligence collection capabilities is the effectiveness of its cellular phone tracking program. With small tracking devices, the government is able to trail the user of a cell-phone to their actual location. This tracking device and initiative is an efficient method of combating information that leaks to and from South Korea.

Efficiency of Intelligence Organs:

Throughout its history, North Korea's government has continued to structure and restructure its intelligence organs. The structuring and restructuring of the organs not only strengthens the country's intelligence collection abilities but has also enabled the nation to keep up with the ongoing changes and technological advancements. These efforts have enabled the respective organs to cope with the changes and enabled the country to adopt new strategies for gathering intelligence.

Willingness to Use Civilians:

North Korea's willingness to use civilians as spying agents is the other strength of its intelligence gathering capabilities. The country's authorities allow both convicted felons and innocents to bid as double agents enabling them identify those who pretend to defect and commit espionage or reporting. This is a useful and effective intelligence tool since the civilians are always on the watch within their neighborhoods to identify those who may do wrong to the government.

Weaknesses of North Korea's Intelligence Capabilities:

While North Korea's intelligence gathering ideas have certain strengths, it also contains some weaknesses including:

Miscalculations by Spies:

One of the major weaknesses of the country's intelligence collection is miscalculations by some of its spies. The miscalculations by spies are coupled by the number of human hours and material resources that are required to undertake a spying mission. These miscalculations are evident from the arrests of several spies while conducting spying missions. For instance, the country's female defector was arrested in 2008 for relaying information she received from army officers she had sexual relations with (Ji-sook, 2008).