Free Republic

SEOUL - South Korean security authorities were ready to carry out on-board inspections of a Bahama-registered freighter after being tipped off that the ship might carry some members of Al-Qaeda, police said on Thursday. The 17,000-tonne freighter, the Athenia, which was suspected of carrying members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group, was due to arrive at the southwestern port of Kunsan late Thursday, the police said. “We have been informed that Al Qaeda members might be hiding in the ship,” a police officer in charge of foreign affairs in Kunsan Police station told AFP. “When the ship reaches the...

A Coast Guard inspection of a freighter docked at the Port of Longview "didn't uncover or reveal anything," a Coast Guard spokesman said Saturday, but the crew members are not allowed off the ship and security will be maintained until the ship leaves. "We were not expecting to find anything," Lt. Cmdr. Glynn Smith, the Coast Guard's public affairs officer for the Pacific area, said Saturday by telephone from his office in Alameda, Calif. The search was routine, according to the Coast Guard, but Longview officials said the security crackdown is the most port activity since the Sept. 11, 2001,...

2012/01/24 14:32 KST Sudden unification could cause 3.65 mln N. Koreans to enter S. Korea: report SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Yonhap) -- Sudden unification between South and North Korea could cause a flood of refugees across the land border that could rock the local labor market, a business organization said Tuesday. A report by the Korea Employers Federation (KEF) predicted that if the North Korean regime collapsed suddenly, up to 3.65 million people from the communist country may cross over into capitalist South Korea. "Even under a conservative estimate, up to 1.61 million North Koreans may move to South Korea, mainly...

S. Korean ex-spy's asylum confirmed in U.S. WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. court has upheld a 2008 ruling to grant political asylum to a former South Korean intelligence agent who claims to face threats from both South and North Korea, sources here said Tuesday. Kim Ki-sam, who left South Korea's state spy agency in 2000, applied for asylum in the U.S. in 2003, saying he would face persecution and prosecution if he was forced to return to South Korea because he had revealed information about secret operations to help then-President Kim Dae-jung win the Nobel Peace Prize. One...

WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, just hours before a New Year's Eve celebration, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Section 1245 of the law contains language providing authority to impose economic sanctions on Iran in order to deter the ayatollahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. White House efforts to have the sanctions provision stripped from the bill failed, and the measure became law with a quiet flourish of the presidential pen. Ever since, Washington and Tehran have been waging a war of words. None of this works to the advantage of the American...

Hardliner Kim Tae-hyo promoted in Blue House Jan 16,2012 Kim Tae-hyo President Lee Myung-bak yesterday promoted his key aide, Kim Tae-hyo, to senior secretary for national security strategy to better deal with the changes on the Korean Peninsula following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Kim, 45, is a well-known North Korea and security scholar from Sungkyunkwan University. Since 2004, he worked as Lee’s key strategist for foreign and security affairs. He joined the Blue House in 2008 when the Lee administration began as the presidential secretary for national security strategy. Although he is one of the youngest...

2012/01/06 18:30 KST S. Korea dismisses rumors of nuclear explosion in N. Korea SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Friday dismissed as groundless a rumor that a light-water reactor has exploded in North Korea's nuclear complex, sending leaked radiation to Pyongyang and as far as South Korea. The rumor cited an unidentified secret Japanese intelligence operative in the isolated communist country. The rumor quickly spread among securities firms in Yeouido, South Korea's equivalent to New York's Wall Street, through instant messenger services on Friday afternoon as ordinary citizens also tweeted messages on the allegation. South Korean officials quickly...

EOUL, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military in South Korea said Tuesday that it will extend a curfew for service members in the country indefinitely in an attempt to ensure continued mission readiness. "We must remain focused on our primary mission here, which is to deter against external aggression and if required, defend the Republic of Korea side-by-side with our ROK counterparts," U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. James Thurman said in a statement. "I anticipate and expect that our service members will continue to maintain the highest standards of individual readiness and professionalism while they serve in the Republic...

Kim Jong-il's Death Is a Blessing Kim Jong-il's death may be seen as having increased uncertainties in North Korea, but I think the exact opposite is true. The uncertainties in the North have stemmed primarily from Kim's self-obsession and obstinacy. North Korea's elite all seem to view reforms as the only way for the country to survive, but Kim executed anyone who dared to say so. Strained ties with South Korea are also due to the idiotic choices Kim made without going through a rational process of discussion and decision-making. As a result, his death has eliminated a measure of...

The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say. Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard. Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks". The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week. Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks". The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping,...

The North Korean Grinch Saturday, December 17, 2011 Looking for a clone of Dr. Seuss' "Grinch Who Stole Christmas"? Meet North Korea's bantam "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il. While his pompadour haircut and platform shoes are oversized, his latest threat to South Korea suggests that his heart is at least two sizes too small. There is even reason to question whether he has one at all. Witness Mr. Kim's warning that, if the South puts up its traditional display of Christmas lights, he will consider it "psychological warfare." He promises "unexpected consequences."

Dec 13, 2011 4:10am South Korea Furious Over Illegal Chinese Boats Public anger in South Korea has escalated a day after a Chinese boat captain stabbed a South Korean coast guardsman to death and seriously injured another with a knife. The captain is charged with murder while resisting arrest by coastal police patrolling illegal Chinese fishing boats at the West Sea’s exclusive economic zone. In one indication of South Korean rage, a 34-year-old man smashed his SUV three times into a police bus guarding the Chinese Embassy inSeoul. And South Korean headlines today strongly criticized the increasing number Chinese fishermen...

S.Korea Undeterred by N.Korean Threat Over Border Christmas Trees South Korea will light up three giant Christmas trees along the North Korean border despite vociferous protests from Pyongyang. A government official said on Sunday that at the request of evangelical organizations, the government decided to illuminate steel Christmas structures at Aegibong Peak in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province and near two observatory platforms on the central and eastern frontlines. The steel Christmas trees, which will be well visible from North Korea, will be lit up from Dec. 23 to Jan. 6. The military switched on the tree on Aegibong Peak last year...

South Korean coastguard "killed by Chinese fisherman" SEOUL | Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:52pm EST (Reuters) - A South Korean coastguard was stabbed to death by a Chinese fisherman Monday in an operation to apprehend a Chinese vessel operating illegally near South Korean waters, a South Korean official said. Two South Koreans were stabbed in the operation in the Yellow Sea off the west coast near the border with North Korea, the coastguard said. Chinese fishing boats are frequently caught fishing in South Korean waters, sometimes leading to violent clashes with South Korean maritime police. "One officer is dead. There...

2011/11/30 17:42 KST N. Korea renews 'sea of fire' warning against S. Korea SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Wednesday renewed its threat to turn South Korea's presidential office into a "sea of fire," once again stepping up its offensive against the Seoul government. North Korea's military first issued the warning last week in response to military exercises by the South near the inter-Korean maritime border. The drills were conducted to mark the first anniversary of the North's Nov. 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, in which four South Koreans were killed, but Pyongyang viewed them as a rehearsal...

South Korea Passes U.S. Free-Trade Agreement, Lawmaker Sets Off Tear Gas Canister in Protest Published November 22, 2011 | NewsCore SEOUL – South Korea's parliament Tuesday approved a free trade agreement with the United States, minutes after an opposition legislator set off a tear gas canister in the assembly in protest over the pact. Television footage showed legislators coughing and wiping their eyes after the canister went off next to the speaker's rostrum, forcing the deputy speaker to flee, AFP reported. Legislators voted 151-7 in favor of the long-delayed deal, live footage showed, after ruling party members caught the opposition...

Up to 400,000 Troops Required if N.Korea Folds Two leading U.S. experts claim that up to 400,000 troops would be required to stabilize North Korea if the regime collapsed. Bruce Bennett, an analyst from leading U.S. think tank the RAND Corporation, and Dartmouth College scholar Jennifer Lind published their study in the fall issue of the renowned academic journal "International Security." They said that if the collapse were to occur after a war on the peninsula, the number of military personnel needed would grow, adding that neighboring countries would have to perform military missions to help stabilize North Korea as...

Russia Expects N.Korea to Collapse by 2020 The Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russia's foremost national policy think tank, takes the imminent collapse of the North Korean regime as a given in a special report published recently. IMEMO concludes that Korean reunification led by South Korea coincides with Russia's national interests. IMEMO spent years to prepare the report, which is part of the Russian government's 20-year master plan and was published in September. â—† The End of North Korea The 480-page special report obtained by the Chosun Ilbo has five pages referring to the Korean Peninsula. It...

A US soldier based in South Korea has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a teenager near his base. The 21-year-old broke into the studio room of the woman and carried out a sexual attack lasting several hours, threatening her with scissors. The judge called it a "violent and abnormal assault". The sentence was one of the longest given to a US soldier in South Korea. US government and military officials have apologised publicly for the rape. Crimes committed by US soldiers in the past have sparked public protests against the American military presence in South Korea....

`1 in 8 pro-NK sites operated by elementary students` OCTOBER 31, 2011 02:02 One in eight pro-North Korea websites caught by police over the past three years was operated by an elementary school student. The students gathered materials lauding the North Korea to attract Web users. A police analysis of people caught for lauding or promoting the North since 2009 found that 37 websites were operated by elementary and middle school students, or 13.2 percent of the 281 pro-North sites that were caught and forced to close. The elementary students used writings and photos gracing North Korean leader Kim Jong...

The U.S. Department of State has bought more than $70,000 worth of books authored by President Obama, sending out copies as Christmas gratuities and stocking “key libraries” around the world with “Dreams from My Father” more than a decade after its release. The U.S. embassy in Egypt, for instance, spent $28,636 in August 2009 for copies of Mr. Obama’s bestselling 1995 memoir. Six weeks earlier, the embassy had placed another order with the same book seller, Kalemat Arabia, for more than $9,000 for copies of the same book, federal purchasing records show. Around the same time, halfway around the world,...

10-19-2011 19:03 Korean Air pilot under investigation for pro-N. Korean activities By Lee Hyo-sik A Korean Air pilot has been under police investigation for allegedly posting dozens of pro-North Korean messages and other material on his website in breach of the country’s National Security Law. The National Police Agency said Wednesday that a 45-year-old captain surnamed Kim started a website (www.scintoy.com) in August 2006 and had posted more than 60 articles and video clips that criticized the South Korean government and instead promoted the North’s propaganda. Some of pro-North Korean material was found to have been produced in the communist...

N.Korea Moves Arms Closer to Border 10/13/11 North Korea has recently moved fighter jets near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, and ground-to-air missiles close to Baeknyeong Island. There is speculation that it plans a minor provocation while South Korean president Lee Myung-bak visits the U.S. since any show of unity between the two allies tends to incense the North. "The North Korean military was seen moving mobile missile launchers at a ground-to-ship missile base near the NLL," a government source said. "There's likelihood that the North will launch a military provocation" while Lee is away. The...

N.Korean Defectors Strain Seoul-Beijing Relations Relations between South Korea and China are strained after Beijing on Tuesday said it is sending 20 North Korean defectors back to their country after arresting them late last month, despite urgent requests from South Korea not to send them to almost certain internment in a gulag, torture or death in the North. But the South Korean government is under internal pressure for failing to do its Constitutional duty to protect them. Under the Constitution, all North Koreans are automatically South Korean citizens. Chinese authorities recently cracked down on North Korean defectors in its three...

S. Korean military beefs up border vigilance against N. Korea 2011-10-12 21:45 South Korea's military has stepped up its combat readiness after detecting unusual military movement by North Korea's armed forces along the tense western sea border, Seoul officials said Wednesday. Seoul recently discovered that the North's military had relocated a ground-to-air missile to north of the South's northernmost island of Baengnyeong. In addition, Pyongyang has moved the missile's movable launching pad to a missile base near the western sea border, a senior government official said, requesting anonymity. South Korean soldiers take part in a military drill on the beach...

October 11, 2011, 2:50 PM KST Palin Hits Familiar Themes in Seoul Debut Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may not be running in the presidential elections next year, but she had plenty to say about political and economic issues when she spoke at the Wold Knowledge Forum 2011 hosted by the Maeil Business Newspaper in Seoul on Tuesday. Ms. Palin, who is in Korea for the first time, repeatedly stressed the need for Americans and others around the world to strike back at what she called “crony capitalism,” arguing that a cozy relationship between big corporations, financial institutions and government...

Sep 16, 2011 8:45am Poison-Needle Assassination Plot Busted in South Korea It could be a plot out of an action thriller. South Korean officials have arrested a North Korean defector in an alleged poison-needle plot targeting a high-profile anti-Pyongyang activist. The suspect, only identified by the police as Ahn, is said to be a former commando in his 40s who defected to South Korea in the late 1990s. The target was activist Park Sang-hak. A North Korean defector himself, Park leads a group called Fighters for Free North Korea that routinely flies balloons over the two countries’ border with leaflets...

`N.Korea finances party in SK through tech company` AUGUST 26, 2011 03:35 “Wangjaesan” is an underground party that received financial resources from an IT company set up with technology offered by North Korea, South Korean prosecutors said Thursday. The party was created by the order of the North’s propaganda division and has been active for a decade in the South. The division sent encrypted orders to the party using steganography, a cutting-edge communications method, via Google and Gmail, whose servers are located overseas. This is the first time for steganography to be detected in a spy investigation. The Seoul Prosecutors...

By Whitney Pitcher (C4P): Governor Palin will reportedly make a speech in South Korea in October. This will mark the third trip to Asia in just over two years for the Governor. She delivered two weighty policy speeches in her previous trips: one at a business convention in Hong Kong in September of 2009 and in India this past spring as well focusing on foreign, energy and economic policies. This upcoming speech seems to be another policy heavy speech as well.

Title only so far.

South Korea Shares Pounded By Morning Selling; Kospi Falls 9.9% SEOUL (Dow Jones)--South Korean shares were hammered by waves of selling Tuesday morning, driving the main Kospi stock index down as much as 9.9% and prompting the market operator to briefly suspend program trading. Selling dragged down most of the market, with banks and brokerages particularly hard hit. A surge of sell orders from foreign investors was the main driving force behind the selloff. At 0250 GMT the Kospi was down 8.4%. The market is in "panic" and "making any kind of comment would be meaningless...people are throwing stocks away...

`NK programmers hired in S.Korea to make security software` AUGUST 08, 2011 07:54 The CEO of a computer security company repeatedly looked around in an interview with a Dong-A Ilbo reporter. The executive seemed wary of whether somebody was listening to what he was saying. He started talking after placing on a table two mobile phones with different numbers. He showed nervousness in the interview, saying, “If what I say is leaked (to a third party)...” What the CEO was afraid of was none other than North Korea. He told Dong-A, “North Korean programmers are developing information security programs for...

35m Cyworld, Nate users’ information hacked 2011-07-28 18:29 SK Communications Co. said on Thursday that personal information of its 35 million online users has been hacked, marking South Korea’s worst online security breach and sparking fears that the leak could lead to massive online and voice scams in coming weeks. “The company has confirmed that a leak of customers’ information has taken place due to hacking on July 26,” SK said in a statement. “The specific scale of the hacking is still being investigated, but it is estimated that some of the personal information of 35 million Nate and Cyworld...

2011/08/06 10:01 KST S. Korea to raise reward money for reporting spies, spy ships SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will sharply raise the amount of money given to people who report spies and spy ships as part of its efforts to raise peoples' awareness toward national security threats, the government said Saturday. The Ministry of Justice said a preannouncement of legislation has been made that will revise current rules regarding rewards so a maximum 500 million won (US$467,700) can be given for information on spies, and 750 million won for people who report spy ships.

Why South Korea is Eyeing Nukes East Asia | Security | South Korea July 27, 2011By Richard Weitz Concern about US security guarantees has prompted debate in South Korea over the possibility of redeploying US tactical nuclear weapons – or building some themselves. Comments by influential South Koreans that their country should consider requesting the return of US nuclear weapons to their shores—or even acquire its own nuclear weapons—reflects persistent unease about how regional security developments are challenging US extended security guarantees developed during the Cold War. In the case of South Korea, the United States pledged through a bilateral...

Aerobics Blamed for Mysterious Shopping Mall Tremor Strenuous group exercise has been fingered as the culprit for the mysterious tremors that led to the evacuation of a shopping mall in Seoul earlier this month. On Tuesday, investigators probing the incident noticed that the vibrometer on the 38th floor of the TechnoMart building in eastern Seoul suddenly started moving violently as a group of 23 men and women in the fitness center on the 12th floor had started jumping energetically around. An office worker in the 38th floor of the building said, "When we were evacuating on July 5, that’s how...

Japanese Firms Move Production, R&D to Korea Japanese chemical group Toray held a ground-breaking ceremony for a carbon fiber plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday. It is the first such factory on Korean soil. Toray says it will invest a total of W1.3 trillion (US$1=W1,084) in the plant over the next 10 years to make Korea the worldÂ’s largest production base in the industry with an annual output of 14,000 tons, twice as much as its main plant in Japan. â—† Influx of Japanese High-tech Firms Other Japanese firms in the high-tech industry are also building plants here...

2011/06/29 03:38 KST (2nd LD) Gen. Thurman urges preparation for N. Korean regime collapse By Lee Chi-dong WASHINGTON, June 28 (Yonhap) -- The incoming top American military commander in Korea said Tuesday that the United States and South Korea should prepare for the possibility of a regime collapse in North Korea. In his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Gen. James Thurman, the nominee to lead 28,000 U.S. forces in South Korea, raised doubts over the North's heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, who is said to be under 30. The U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command "must continue readiness preparations to fight...

U.S. 'Worried About S.Korea's Bolder Deterrence Strategy' The U.S. is worried about South Korea's more aggressive deterrence strategy against North Korea, which was formulated after the North's attacks on the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island last year, a government source said Sunday. The military has been instructed to strike back faster and more aggressively in the event of any further provocations by the North. "After the North's attack on the Cheonan last year, Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, expressed concerns about our military's increase of firepower near the demilitarized zone," the government source said....

U.S. wants Seoul to try harder for talks Source: ‘No attempt’ to involve the North June 27, 2011 Despite reaffirming that inter-Korean talks should precede the resumption of six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization - a call directed at the North - the U.S. is exerting pressure on South Korea to do its part to improve inter-Korean relations, a diplomatic source in Washington told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. The reaffirmation of Seoul-Washington coordination came during a meeting in Washington on Friday between South Korea’s foreign minister and high-ranking officials in the U.S. Department of State, including Secretary of State Hillary...

China Warned N.Korea Against Attacking the South, Says Lee China clearly warned North Korea that South Korea would retaliate if the North carries out another provocation, President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday. At a lunch meeting with members of the parliamentary Defense Committee, Lee said the Chinese government informed him that the comments were "delivered to North Korea," according lawmakers who were there. "President Lee said North Korea would not be able to carry out further acts of provocation and added that China officially notified our government that it would no longer help the North if it did that," one committee...

Kim Jong Il’s Enigmatic China Trip [Klingner Column] By Bruce Klingner [2011-06-03 15:30 ] As soon as reports surfaced that Kim Jong Il was in China, there was an accompanying flurry of speculation over the causes as well as implications of his latest expedition. Was it a precursor to dramatic breakthroughs in nuclear negotiations or a portend of another provocation? Did the increased frequency of Kim’s China forays reflect a closer bilateral relationship or repeated failure to gain economic aid? Was it all related to the North Korea leadership succession? The answer to these and other questions remain frustratingly unknown....

Army officer brought N.K. nuke site soil to South: reports After 1999 mission, N.K. abducted Lt. Col. Jeong, then released him in deal A South Korean Army intelligence officer infiltrated areas near North KoreaÂ’s Yongbyon nuclear complex and brought samples of soil and water there to the South in 1999 for the government to assess its nuclear activities, news reports said Monday. Later, the lieutenant colonel, identified only by his surname Jeong, was abducted into the North after being seduced by a North Korean female agent in China. He was then released in the early 2000s thanks to under-the-table contacts,...

South Korean soldiers use Kim Jong-Il pictures for target practise Some South Korean army training centres are using pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and his son as targets on rifle ranges, the defence ministry said. 6:45AM BST 31 May 2011 Several training centres for army reservists, including those in Gyeonggi province surrounding the capital Seoul, use the pictures as targets, a ministry spokesman said. Each centre has the freedom to decide its own training procedures and the ministry issued no instructions about targets, he told AFP. "Details of military practices are for each training centre to decide." Several...

2011/05/25 09:29 KST S. Korean exports to debt-ridden European nations plunge SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's exports to southern European countries have plunged this year as demand has slowed due to the region's debt crisis, the customs office said Wednesday. South Korea's exports to Portugal nearly halved to US$490.5 million during the first four months of this year, down from $882.9 million a year earlier, according to data offered by the Korea Customs Service (KCS). Exports to Greece fell 15.8 percent to $304.2 million, while those to Italy started to contract in April after three months of growth,...

05-20-2011 18:37 'North Korea abducted 4 South Korean military officers’ By Kim Rahn North Korea abducted four high-ranking military officers from South Korea in 1999, a former journalist claimed at a court hearing Friday. The authorities said they can’t confirm the allegation as such information is confidential. The kidnapping was disclosed by a former journalist, surnamed Jeong, who testified as a witness Thursday in a hearing for Park Chae-seo, former intelligence agent code-named “Black Venus” who is suspected of espionage. At the hearing, Jeong said “yes” when asked by Park’s lawyer whether he had known that a lieutenant colonel from...

'NK Rocket Launchers Pointed at S.Korea' Write 2011-05-17 18:16:16 Update 2011-05-17 18:52:57 The military is closely watching North Korea’s movements as multiple rocket launchers directed against South Korea have been observed. A military official said that the South Korean military detected on Tuesday afternoon four 240-millimeter multiple rocket launchers at a North Korean artillery position near the border pointed at the South. The position is about six kilometers away from the southern limit line in Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province. The official added that the North Korean military is believed to be holding an ordinary drill, but the South Korean military...

Thursday, May 5, 2011 China, Japan, Korea To Study Local-Currency Trade Settlement HANOI (Dow Jones)--Finance ministers from China, Japan and South Korea said in a joint statement Wednesday they have agreed to start studying the use of their own currencies in trade settlement, the latest sign of Asian efforts to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar. The ministers from the three big Asian economies also said they are "mindful of" challenges such as growing inflationary pressures in Asia, rising global commodity prices and increasingly volatile capital flows into the region. The communique from the ministers, who met on the sidelines...

Nuke-powered USS Michigan made public May 2, BUSAN, South Korea -- Seen here are torpedoes installed at the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Michigan, which made a port visit to South Korea's largest port city of Busan on April 30. The USS Michigan, one of the largest submarines in the world, was disclosed to South Korean reporters on May 2. (Yonhap)

Death Pods Swarm Towards North Korea by James Dunnigan May 1, 2011 South Korea has received more of the several dozen AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Targeting pods it had ordered for its F-15K fighter-bombers. The growing threat of war with North Korea has led to the speeding up of orders for many critical items of military equipment. South Korea wants as many of its F-15Ks as possible equipped with the Sniper pod, and the pilots trained in its use. The U.S. Air Force buys Sniper XTP targeting pods for about $2 million each, and currently has over 500 of these pods, which...