The Defense Ministry said Wednesday it plans to install more surveillance equipment at the heavily fortified inter-Korean border in a bid to strengthen the military’s monitoring of North Korean soldiers at night.
The ministry said it plans to set up monitoring equipment including thermal closed-circuit television cameras at the South Korean Army’s general posts in the Demilitarized Zone in an effort to better detect the movement of the North’s soldiers.
The DMZ, which bisects the Korean Peninsula, is a 4-kilometer-wide strip of rugged no-man’s land stretching from coast to coast and serves as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The move comes as North Korea is known to have recently increased reconnaissance and other activities in border areas.
A group of armed North Korean soldiers crossed the border into the South on Sunday and returned to the North right after receiving warning shots from the South’s army.
Last month, a North Korean soldier defected to South Korea by crossing the DMZ on foot, sparking concerns over the South’s lax surveillance in border areas.
South Korea’s military set up CCTVs at its general posts in the DMZ in 2005, but they are insufficient in accurately monitoring nighttime activities by North Korean soldiers.
It also said that the military will seek to establish a remote operational system for thermal observation devices.
To this end, the ministry has submitted its additional budget plan worth a combined 119.4 billion won ($104.7 million) to the National Assembly. It earmarked 17.5 billion won in the budget for setting up such thermal cameras. (Yonhap)
