North Korea looks to outwit missile launch watchers: Report

SEOUL: North Korea has been repeatedly moving multiple missiles around in an apparent bid to confuse outside intelligence gatherers ahead of an expected launch, Yonhap reported Thursday.

According to intelligence analysis cited by the South Korean news agency, two mid-range Musudan missiles have been repeatedly moved in and out of a warehouse facility on its east coast.

At the same time, at least five mobile launch vehicles have also been spotted swapping places and positions.

"There are signs the North could fire off Musudan missiles any time soon," an intelligence source told Yonhap.

"But the North has been repeatedly moving its missiles in and out of a shed, which needs close monitoring."

Another source suggested Pyongyang was hoping to "fatigue" South Korean and US intelligence gatherers who have been on a heightened state of surveillance alert since Wednesday.

One of the reasons that the US has maintained a presence in Japan, Okinawa and South Korea for the past now nearly seventy years, is as a listening and intelligence-gathering outpost. There are few, if any, actual spies on the ground, but units of the various deployed military elements of North Korea and China communicate with each other via radio, and there are intercept operators on duty listening in to the chatter between these units. This activity is not exactly secret, as both sides engage in such clandestine listening and interpretation, but the actual intercept methods and the information derived are classified very highly. That is, of course, unless some member of Congress on any of the various Intelligence committees or subcommittees so chooses to disclose these sources and the raw intelligence derived from this endeavor, as has happened a number of times in the past.

I know, this is very close to “Loose Lips Sink Ships”, but nothing I have said here reveals anything not already known widely among the rival nations who also maintain such presence. “The information is classified so highly, only the enemy will ever find out”, is a statement often repeated within the intelligence community.

So when somebody asks why, a half-century or more after the end of WW II, American soldiers are still deployed at forward areas of potential conflict, that is the reason. Calls for bringing them home are actually providing aid and comfort to real and potential adversaries.

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