Machine-gun-toting robots deployed on DMZ

Stars and Stripes
Jan Rabiroff

July 10, 2010

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — Security along the DMZ has gone high-tech, as South Korea has quietly installed a number of machine-gun-armed robots to serve as the first line of defense against the potential advance of North Korean soldiers.

The stationary robots — which look like a cross between a traffic signal and a tourist-trap telescope — are more drone than Terminator in concept, operated remotely just outside the southern boundary of the DMZ by humans in a nearby command center.

Officials refuse to say how many or where the robots have been deployed along the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, but did say they were installed late last month and will be operated on an experimental basis through the end of the year.

South Korean military officials will then decide how many, if any, robots they want complementing the soldiers who man the area adjacent to the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ, which stretches 160 miles across the peninsula.

“The robots are not being deployed to replace or free up human soldiers,” said Huh Kwang-hak, a spokesman for Samsung Techwin, the manufacturer of the SGR-1 robot. “Rather, they will become part of the defense team with our human soldiers. Human soldiers can easily fall asleep or allow for the depreciation of their concentration over time,” he said. “But these robots have automatic surveillance, which doesn’t leave room for anything resembling human laziness. They also won’t have any fear (of) enemy attackers on the front lines.”

South Korea Ministry of National Defense spokesman Kwan Ki-hyeon would not comment on the DMZ robot experiment, other than to confirm his agency is overseeing the project and to refer any questions about it to Samsung Techwin.

Huh said no government officials would talk about the robots: “This experimental project is highly classified.” However, he said he was free to discuss how the SGR-1 robots operate and talk in general about their use.

A couple of experts on Korean relations said they did not see the deployment of the robots as the start of any new era of indiscriminate killing by remote control. Rather, they called the SGR-1 experiment the next logical step in making sure the DMZ continues to be an effective buffer against North Korean aggression. Read More…

Thanks to our source!

theintelhub.com/2010/07/12/machine-gun-toting-robots-deployed-on-dmz/