strategy for countering North Korea′s weapons systems.

According to an unnamed defense official who spoke to Yonhap News on Sunday，... the stealth

unmanned aerial vehicles will stand by at higher altitudes than other aerial defense

systems owned by Pyongyang... and will be capable of thwarting the regime′s long－range

missiles and mobile missile systems，... including its multiple rocket launchers and

self－propelled guns... and SCUD， Rodong and Musudan missiles.

It′s an expensive project， with the initial research phase alone expected to cost more

than 3－hundred－and－27－thousand U.S. dollars.

Applied research will begin in 2017. This is just one in a series of 31 such projects

South Korea plans to conduct by the end of next year.