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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Gun-wielding robots could soon be patrolling the world's most heavily fortified border under a plan by South Korea's Defence Ministry to bolster its frontier with the North.
The ministry said today it will complete a feasibility study by the end of the year on building surveillance robots to be deployed along the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.
Plans call for the robots — along with sensor-activated alarm systems and closed-circuit TV cameras — to be installed on the 250-kilometre-long border by 2011.
"If the surveillance system by robots is effective, we may withdraw part of our troops away from the border," a ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.
South Korea deployed two rifle-equipped robots with its 3,600 troops in Iraq.
The announcement comes just months after South Korea found holes in the wire fences in the four-kilometre-wide demilitarized zone that separates the two sides.
The discovery in October prompted fears of possible infiltration by Northern agents, but the South later concluded that an unidentified South Korean civilian cut through the fence to defect to the North. North Korea hasn't confirmed such a defection.
The border between the two Koreas remains tightly sealed after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire and not a peace treaty. Hundreds of thousands of troops patrol the mine-strewn demilitarized zone.
The ministry said today it will complete a feasibility study by the end of the year on building surveillance robots to be deployed along the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.
Plans call for the robots — along with sensor-activated alarm systems and closed-circuit TV cameras — to be installed on the 250-kilometre-long border by 2011.
"If the surveillance system by robots is effective, we may withdraw part of our troops away from the border," a ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.
South Korea deployed two rifle-equipped robots with its 3,600 troops in Iraq.
The announcement comes just months after South Korea found holes in the wire fences in the four-kilometre-wide demilitarized zone that separates the two sides.
The discovery in October prompted fears of possible infiltration by Northern agents, but the South later concluded that an unidentified South Korean civilian cut through the fence to defect to the North. North Korea hasn't confirmed such a defection.
The border between the two Koreas remains tightly sealed after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire and not a peace treaty. Hundreds of thousands of troops patrol the mine-strewn demilitarized zone.
The concept is interesting, but I find the bolded part the most intriguing. Just couldn't wait to slowly starve to death?
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