(by guest blogger, Andy Jackson)
The question is not whether the Koreans in the free trade negotiations with the US are paranoid. The question is whether they are paranoid enough (from the Chosun):
Beware of the dragonfly: it may be a bugging robot disguised as a harmless insect. No, the advice does not come from a mental patient convinced the government is spying on his laundry bills: it was one of the security tips issued during last week’s two-day workshop for 120 Korean delegates in the nation’s impending free-trade negotiations with the U.S. The workshop was designed to help delegates guard their negotiation strategies from prying ears when the talks start in June.
The piece said that the US also has other insects and spy coins at its disposal (but apparently not Robert Kim).
Then there is the dreaded Echelon surveillance system, which can analyze your poo from one of 120 spy satellites circling the earth and tell just what you ate, where you ate it and when. OK, it can’t do all that but it can intercept up to 3 billion communications. As soon as the eight interns in the basement of NSA headquarters finish reading them, we’ll have some serious intelligence on our hands.
Seriously, I expect we are spying on the Koreans and I suspect they are spying on us. That is just the nature of the business.
5 Comments
According to an article not too long ago published in an intelligence journal (I think it was Intelligence & National Security), South Korea is one of the countries most actively undertaking espionage against the US, along with America’s other friends like Japan and Britain. And I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the US does the same against S. Korea. As Rob said, it’s “just the nature of the business.”
It’s certainly a good idea to use intelligence to the max, even against friendly countries, but I wouldn’t be too worried about the Koreans getting a raw deal with the FTA. Koreans are very tough negotiators and I think the US will be lucky if they get the ‘better’ of the deal. Paranoia aside, I think the Koreans will be tough as nails in these negotiations. It’s the Americans that should be worried about the kind of deal they’ll be getting.
The bug bugs are real. I’ve seen stuff about them. I think it was the Japanese and their craze for robotics that started the idea of mimicing household insects and their movements to use them to navigate what are basically the same kind of structures and record what they saw or heard. I’ve seen the dragonfly bug demonstrated on TV.
As for who is going to reap the bulk of benefits from the FTA, the two first comments assume something I don’t — 1. that a deal with will be made and 2. that it will be implemented. I give both a very long shot of coming about in an election year and a presidential election year following that.
I still give it a 25% chance Roh and crew set up the FTA talks so the non-lame duck “progressives” can beat the heck out of him and the conservatives with it to energize their base over the long term. FTA negociations will go on for many months. There will be frequent leaks. Which means there will be frequent rantings in the street and press. And you will get big time influencial people (like with the screen quota) out promoting anti-FTA. In such an environment, I wonder how much of what goes on in the negociations really matters?
South Korea has shown a habit of negociating trade issues then balking at implementation when having to do so — for fear of the society that is anti-free trade - unless they are talking about Korean exports.
China and Chile know what I’m talking about….
Korean military exchange students among other nationalities in the US are well known for trying to get classified information from other students. Before attending a particular school I was selected for the US soldiers were given a OPSEC briefing from a MI captain about the exchange students trying to gain classified info particularly Koreans, Japanese, Arab countries, and Israelis.
Sure enough once the class began the exchange students very cleverly tried to get information from us just as the MI guy had briefed us. No hard feelings about it, they were doing their job and I was doing mine.
The fact of the matter is that spying is part of the “Great Game” and I was briefed in private about it and it was not put on the front page of the USA Today unlike Korea where it is splashed across the pages of the Chosun.
The Korean media is about sensationalism and not news.
The fact of the matter is that spying is part of the “Great Game” and I was briefed in private about it and it was not put on the front page of the USA Today unlike Korea where it is splashed across the pages of the Chosun.
The Chosun Ilbo has to, on occasion, not look like it’s too pro-American, sort of like the NYT demonstrating that it’s not too pro-Clinton or anti-Bush.
And the article read more like a cutesy, “gee whiz” kind of piece with a general OPSEC message rather than an anti-American screed. Note the end paragraph:
Anyway, I don’t think the Korean side has to worry about the American side bugging their conversations because, as everyone knows, foreigners can’t speak Korean.