A leaked South Korean intelligence report asserts that some 15,000 North Korean soldiers have deserted in the past two years. Conditions in the North Korean army, never very pleasant to begin with, have noticeably deteriorated in the last few years. There is less food and more corruption. Officers and senior NCOs are stealing food and other goods to support extended families. Discipline is breaking down and a generation of smaller, weaker, recruits (the result of ten years of famine) are more difficult to train.

The US Army has begun using Shadow 200 UAVs along the DMZ.