North Korea is a nightmare of an intelligence target: A brutal police state with limited internet usage in mountainous terrain laced with secret tunnels.
WASHINGTON — When North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan Monday, the $80 billion American intelligence-gathering apparatus had only hours of warning, U. S. officials told NBC News.
It was the latest in a long history of apparent surprises by the rogue regime. Lately, the North Koreans have outpaced U. S. estimates in their progress on nuclear missiles. In December 2011, the U. S. was unaware for more than 50 hours that longtime leader Kim Jong Il had died — learning the news only after it was announced on North Korean TV. In 2010, the North Koreans showed an American expert a huge new uranium enrichment plant about which the world had known nothing.
Why can’t the U. S. military and intelligence agencies do a better job of ferreting out secrets from North Korea?
Because, current and former intelligence officials say, North Korea is the ultimate nightmare of an intelligence target: A brutal police state with limited internet usage occupying mountainous terrain that lends itself to secret tunnels.
„It is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, collection nation that we have to collect against, “ said Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, to Congress in May.
And it’s getting harder. U. S. officials told NBC News that North Korea has taken steps in recent months to disguise their missile-related activities, including fueling rockets inside structures, outside of aerial view.
There are three basic ways the U. S. gathers most of its foreign intelligence: collecting information from human spies; intercepting electronic communications; and observing what’s happening on the ground, mainly with satellites.
