N.Korea develops camouflage tactics: reports

North Korea has developed camouflage materials suchas stealth paint to hide its warships, tanks or fighter jets fromforeign reconnaissance satellites and aircraft, reports said Monday.A confidential field manual used by the communist North's militaryshowed the isolated regime has also built a network of foxholes andcaves, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.
The newspaper said the manual quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il assaying: "Modern warfare is stealth warfare. We can say that victory ordefeat will be determined by how we carry out stealth warfare."
The handbook, printed in 2005, was smuggled out of the North by asource through Caleb Mission, a South Korean Christian organisation.
It gives detailed instructions on how to make and apply the stealth paint, which absorbs radar waves, Chosun Ilbo said.
The South's defence ministry confirmed the North's military had used the manual for years.
"We have already acquired a copy of the manual and are fully aware ofthe North's tactics," a ministry spokesman told AFP, declining to givedetails.
The manual describes how to conceal facilities or equipment and how tomake military units look as though they are moving when they are not,to deceive South Korean and US reconnaissance.
Chosun Ilbo quoted an unnamed intelligence expert as saying he wassurprised to find that the North's military has done "more intensiveand careful research into stealth tactics than we thought".
Yonhap news agency carried a similar report.
The handbook describes concealing long-range artillery equipment by applying radar-reflective materials, it said.
The North's military was also ordered to pave fake aircraft runways to deceive foreign prying eyes, Yonhap said.