North Korea caught spying on South Korea with low-tech GoPro ‘drones’

By: Unknown on 12:45

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You know how the USA has Predator and Global Hawk (pictured above) drones capable of surveilling and killing almost anyone, anywhere in the world? Well, stick this in your pipe and smoke it, Uncle Sam: North Korea had at least two unmanned drones that were probably capable of flying at around a dozen knots, and were probably equipped with “high-resolution” GoPro cameras. I say “had” because they crashed while trying to surveil South Korean military installations.
A few days ago, a North Korean drone (pictured below left) was found near Paju, just south of the Korean DMZ. The South Korean Yonhap news agency says that the drone was equipped with a high-resolution camera that had taken photos of military installations and the South Korean presidential compound. I don’t know about you, but that rectangular cutout in the middle of the drone’s underbelly looks to be the perfect size for a GoPro video camera. The engine appears to be a fairly standard model airplane engine. While South Korea calls it a drone, I’m a little dubious: I doubt that such a rudimentary construction would be capable of autonomous flight. (Read: DARPA shows off 1.8-gigapixel surveillance drone, can spot a terrorist from 20,000 feet.)

North Korean drones. The one on the left looks like it should have a GoPro slotted into its underbelly. [Image credit: AFP]

The second drone, pictured on the right, was found on the island of Baengnyeong yesterday, following an odd show of strength that saw North and South Korea firing a bunch of artillery shells into some (empty) disputed waters. Baengnyeong Island is technically within South Korea’s maritime border, but it’s close enough to the Northern Limit Line (a de facto maritime border that extends from the land-based DMZ) that North Korea occasionally does something stupid. Back in 2010, it sunk the South Korean Cheonan near the island, and now it appears to be surveilling the island with these highly advanced drones.

The Korean DMZ, plus the Northern Line Limit [Image credit: BBC]

Details of this second drone are even sparser than the first — but again, the technology appears to be fairly rudimentary. I seriously doubt these drones were capable of using GPS (or something similar) to fly autonomously, but who knows.
source:::extremetech.com