North Korea Has Set-Up A New Three-Year Long Intelligence Course For Cyber Warfare

File photo of students at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, in Pyongyang, North Korea, work on computers. AP

Strategy Page: Information Warfare: Paranoia Central

North Korea has established yet another specialized college for intelligence operations. The Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy will now offer a three-year course for international IW (information warfare) specialists. Students in this course will also study the detection and monitoring of radio traffic, including location of radio signals. These tech elements are already taught at Mangyongdae but not as intensively as will be the case with the new IW major. Another important area of study is how to block certain types of wireless communications at the North Korean border. This will include unwanted cell phone signals.

Prime candidates for the new course are younger (under 30) officers who demonstrate technical skills on the entry exam. Those who get into the course and graduate will have much improved career and promotion prospects. This new specialty is the latest of several new programs at Mangyongdae that are only available to the most loyal and capable upper-class North Koreans.

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WNU Editor: The course is offered by the "Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy". This detailed post is a must read.

North Korea Has Built Its First Real Ballistic Missile Submarine

Kim Jong-un inspects the new submarine. The blurring was applied by North Korean censors. KCNA

Forbes: North Korea Appears To Have Built Its First Real Ballistic Missile Submarine

There is a corner of North Korea's nuclear program that we should take notice of. Hidden behind the distraction of the recent spate of tactical missile tests is a greater development with strategic implications: New submarines that will allow the Hermit Kingdom to improve the lethality and survivability of its nuclear arsenal.

On July 23, North Korean state media released images of Kim Jong-un inspecting a submarine. The boat (submarines are always called boats) was described as newly constructed, although it is likely an old boat that has been newly modified. The images, which do not show the entire submarine, can nonetheless be pieced together to reveal that it is a variant of the 1950s vintage Russian Project 633 submarine, known to NATO as the Romeo class. North Korea has operated as many as twenty of these submarines, with most being built locally with Chinese assistance. The last local construction was in 1996. The age of the underlying design notwithstanding, it appears to have a new capability that should energize strategists: it looks like a ballistic missile submarine.

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WNU Editor: Can't tell much from the photo. But that is one big sub.