IHS Jane’s Launches Jane’s Intelligence Weekly (Korea SitRep)

Janes ^ | June 5, 2009 | Christian Le Mière

[Red Steel]

LONDON (5th June 2009) – IHS Jane’s launches Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, a new publication designed to provide analysis on security issues worldwide.

Jane’s Intelligence Weekly delivers insight produced by IHS Jane's global network of contributors and in-house experts. The publication’s analysis is supported by satellite imagery intelligence, as well as quantitative risk assessments provided by Jane's Country Risk Ratings. Regular features will include: Jane's Security Alerts, which provide a snapshot of forthcoming global security developments, and a weekly biography of high-profile personnel.

Highlights from the first issue of Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, include:

South Korea Moves to Heightened Alert Level

Event: South Korea raised its five-level Watch Condition (Watchcon) to level two on 28 May for the fifth time since the Korean War ended in 1953. The move came after North Korea’s 25 May nuclear test.

The increase in Watchcon from level three means that the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will deploy additional intelligence-collecting assets and increase reconnaissance missions.

The heightened alert status of the CFC came after North Korea's bellicose reaction to South Korea joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on 26 May. Pyongyang subsequently stated through its state-run news agency, "The Korean War armistice has lost its binding power, so the Korean peninsula is at war."

The launch issue of Jane’s intelligence Weekly carries imagery from DigitalGlobe’s Quickbird satellite on 14 May of the likely site of North Korea’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The imagery identifies significant excavation, indicating recent tunnelling, at an underground facility at the site and personnel and vehicles were observed at barracks and maintenance bays. A heavily secured compound adjacent to the region’s only road access point also shows evidence of underground activity.