The National Security Bureau (NSB) has been keeping a close watch on the North Korean communist regime's welcoming of gang members from Taiwan with open arms over the past year, sources said yesterday.
Intelligence showed that North Korea is attempting to build drug-trafficking links with Taiwanese gang members.
Gangsters who have traveled to North Korea over the past year are being monitored for any suspected illicit activities.
An intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the unusual links that are developing between Pyongyang and local gangsters have been observed for some time but did not warrant enough attention until recent months.
"Pyongyang actually invited these gangsters for a visit. We believe that the links are being built for the sake of drug trafficking. The watch will continue," the source said, declining to offer any further information.
The gangsters being solicited by North Korea could belong to gangs that are comprised mainly of descendants of troops who fled with Chiang Kai-shek (
The source of the drugs that these gangsters plan to smuggle via North Korea is very likely China, which is one of the major suppliers of drugs in the Asia-Pacific region.
China has been using neighboring countries under its political control to smuggle drugs into other parts of the world, including Taiwan, a defense official said.
"Drugs smuggled into the country are mostly from China," the official said.
The NSB has been exchanging information with quite a few countries about drugs trafficking. It is therefore not alone in the fight against these cross-border criminal activities.
Taiwan, though lacking official ties with North Korea, has been interested in information on this self-isolated country, since the information might lead to a better understanding of China.
One of the findings by the military is that North Korea has developed a very powerful anti-tank missile and that the technology has been proven to be from China.
The anti-tank missile uses millimeter wave as its seeker, operating on two bands at the same time, sources said. Millimeter wave is known for pin-point accuracy and reliability in all kinds of adverse environments, including electronic attacks.
The millimeter-wave seeker uses technology that only a few countries have acquired. Among these countries, the US is the best known.
China is known to have developed a millimeter-wave-guided anti-tank missile, which is believed to have been the model for the missiles owned by North Korea. South Korea's dread of the new weapon could be an indication that China's millimeter-wave development might be quite advanced, sources said.
The development poses a great threat to Taiwan, since the military does not possess any weapon of the same calibre.
The AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter is the kind of weapon that the army wants to acquire to maintain a balance of power with China.
The helicopter's fire-control radar uses millimeter-wave technology. The helicopter is also armed with a millimeter-wave-guided anti-tank missile.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most