Thursday, July 20, 2006

Open Source North Korean IMINT Reloaded

Continuing the latest coverage on North Korea, and the Travel Without Moving series, yesterday I came across to an ongoing initiative on Google-Earthing the North Korean Military pointing out that :

"In fact, there are several military and intelligence employees, some retired and some active, who turn the defense job into a hobby, helping to point out and explain foreign military curiosities at the very civilian level of Google Earth. One current imagery analyst explained that, though he never divulges classified information, he often ‘identifies naval vessels at’ bases that ordinary Google Earth explorers have stumbled upon. Also, maps from sites such as Globalsecurity.org are overlayed onto the framework of Google Earth. Like an army of ants, the nearly 550,000-strong Google Earth community has voraciously explored the North Korean military installations, including : Musadan-ri/No-Dong missile test site, Pipa Got naval base, Cho Do naval base"

Given the powerful driving force and the size of the Google Earth's community it could definitely save tax payers' dollars, but high-resolution and timely imagery still remain a critical issue here. Open Source IMINT is gaining scale and I'm sure someone's watching the trend as well.

Related resources and posts :
GEOINT
Reconnaissance
The "threat" by Google Earth has just vanished in the air
Suri Pluma - a satellite image processing tool and visualizer
Security quotes : a FSB (successor to the KGB) analyst on Google Earth

Satellite Reconnaissance of the Future (1998)
Military Reconnaissance Satellites (IMINT)
Military Intelligence Satellites
North Korea Sightseeing
Shedding light on North Korea (330+ placemarks)

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