South Korea’s arms procurement agency is considering whether to again pursue a project to build tethered balloons for surveillance near the maritime border with North Korea in the Yellow Sea.
 
A military source said Wednesday that a subcommittee of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration will meet this week to decide whether or not to have the aerostats built.
 
SK Telecom, a main contractor of the project, was said to have expressed interest in taking part if the project resumes.
 
The source said if the project is picked back up, the agency would aim to have to balloons up by the end of this year or early next year.
 
The 24-billion-won budget for the project would buy the tethered aircraft, optical cameras, radars and ground control equipment. The aerostats would monitor the North Korean military around-the-clock near South Korea’s five islands close to the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the maritime border in the Yellow Sea. 
 
After North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, South Korea allocated 24 billion won to introduce two tethered balloons. But that project was put on hold after one of the balloons malfunctioned and the other crashed during a test flight last year.