BEIJING // Details revealing mistakes surrounding the recent missile launch by North Korea have been leaked to the media, highlighting the powerful presence of Seoul's intelligence operations in the communist country.
In a revealing sign of how much the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's spy agency, knows about what is going on inside its rival, JoongAng Ilbo, a major daily in South Korea, reported on the circumstances around the rocket launch.
The report said the ship sent by North Korea to retrieve its rocket debris broke down halfway into the journey, while its monitoring team lost track of its rocket, thereby creating confusion and dampening the initial excitement over the launch.
"Even though North Korea launched a rocket, the Pyongyang authorities fell into disarray with the reason not wholly due to the [subsequent] failure of the rocket to enter the orbit," the newspaper cited a "key intelligence official" as saying.
It said the problems started in February when Pyongyang revealed it was preparing to launch a communications satellite. Soon a series of technical glitches ensued in the run-up to the launch date, making the North Korean authorities worried about the possibility of failure.
Despite the technical ill-preparedness, the North Korean scientists had to meet the deadline in April, ahead of yesterday's opening of the Supreme People's Assembly, the rubber-stamp parliament in North Korea.
Yesterday Kim Jong Il, the North's leader, was reappointed head of the nation's most powerful National Defence Commission. The widely expected event reaffirms his grip on the nation amid speculations over his ailing health.
North Korea staged a 100,000-strong rally praising his leadership in conjunction with the "success" of the satellite launch. But the US, South Korea and Japan see it as a failure. And South Korean intelligence agencies saw the signs of failure coming well in advance.
Before Pyongyang launched its rocket, the North came up with an idea of how to retrieve the rocket debris. The initial plan was to send two military vessels with engineers on board to the areas where the remains were likely to fall.
But the authorities feared a possible hostile reaction from Japan for dispatching military vessels near the Japanese territory. So as a "safe measure", Pyongyang instead sent two commercial freighters, one to the Sea of Japan, east of the launch site at Musudan-ri in the country's north-east, and the other to the Pacific Ocean, 3,600km from the launch site.
The first vessel was in place as scheduled, but the second commercial ship broke down halfway to its destination. "The North Koreans became greatly flustered and tried to place the failure on to others, while the South's intelligence officials, who were on the snooping, were basking themselves in irrepressible laughter," the newspaper quoted the intelligence official as saying.
In terms of tracking down the rocket, North Korea lacked the radar technology to trace it and was unable to identify the trajectory of the second and third sections of the rocket.
With its rocket missing, the newspaper said North Korea fell into a flurry of confusion and had to rely on news reports from its adversaries - the US, South Korea, and Japan - to obtain the relevant information.
In another episode, after its rocket preparation was exposed by the international media, North Korea stepped up its security around the launch site by dispatching fighter jets and destroyers, according to a testimony given to a South Korean parliamentary committee by Brig Gen Hwang Ui-don. But a MiG-21 fighter that was supposed to protect the launch site crashed due to mechanical problems.
The tension escalated when Japan announced that it would shoot down the rocket in case it fell in its territory.
The newspaper did not say how the spy agency obtained all this "inside" information in North Korea. Seoul is known to have a vast network of intelligence agents throughout North Korea.
When two US journalists were recently detained by North Korea's border patrol, the US requested help from South Korea to track down the pair. Seoul's intelligence agency went into a "full operation" and was soon able to tell its US counterpart in great detail about the whereabouts of the journalists, including a timeline of the incident and how they were interrogated by the North, according to South Korean news reports.
Chinese media recently reported that a large number of South Korea's agents work inside China, particularly near the China-North Korean border area, to collect information on North Korea.
Some analysts believe the South Korean spy agency's leaks to its media on the launch were meant to demoralise the North Korean leadership.
slee@thenational.ae
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
More from Armen Sarkissian
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The biog
Favourite food: Fish and seafood
Favourite hobby: Socialising with friends
Favourite quote: You only get out what you put in!
Favourite country to visit: Italy
Favourite film: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Family: We all have one!
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6-cylinder%2C%204.8-litre%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E280%20brake%20horsepower%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E451Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh153%2C00%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
