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(S//SI) Third North Korea Rock Drill Breaks New Ground
FROM: the North Korea Issue Management Team (IMT)
Unknown
Run Date: 12/02/2003
(S//SI) An article in today's NSA Daily discusses North Korea Rock Drill 3, held from 12 to 14
November. Further detail is provided below:
(S//SI) What made Rock Drill 3 especially unique was the fact that the primary "operator" being
supported was a non-military entity - the U.S. State Department. Developing a Cryptologic
Support Plan (CSP) for a non-military operator was a first for NSA/CSS and thus created a rich
learning opportunity for everyone involved. One of the first lessons learned was that unlike
military commands, the State Department does not develop Operations Plans (OPLAN) with
clearly outlined goals and objectives. The dynamic nature of their negotiations and planning
precludes such detailed documentation. Through close collaboration with State Department's
East Asia/Pacific and INR (Intelligence and Research) bureaus, the NK IMT gained an
understanding of State Department's objectives vis-Ã -vis North Korea and used that
understanding as the basis for building a CSP. The lack of an existing OPLAN, however, soon led
to the coining of a new term, "Cryptologic Support Strategy," to distinguish it from a traditional
CSP.
(S//SI) The first day of Rock Drill 3 focused on a review of the draft Cryptologic Support Strategy
(CSS). The participants provided significant input, propelling the CSS to an eighty percent
completion point, while providing valuable suggestions on how to bring the CSS to completion.
On the second and third days of the Rock Drill, participants were led through a series of six
scenarios, crafted to elicit State Department views on likely responses to a wide range of North
Korean behaviors and to test the Cryptologic system's ability to respond. The energy and
enthusiasm sparked by the review of scenarios was palpable and afforded much greater insight
into the State Department's plans as well as into NSA/CSS capabilities to support them.
(S//SI) By all accounts Rock Drill 3 was a great success with many tangible results:
The first Cryptologic Support Strategy (80% complete) for a non-military entity;
Greater visibility into the State Department's decision space vis-a-vis North Korea;
A deeper appreciation of the interdependencies of each of the operators in North Korea (State
Department, USFK and PACOM) and an increased understanding of their objectives;
A better understanding of NSA/CSS capabilities to respond to State Department needs and
identification of steps to improve the overall posture;
State Department commitment to continual collaboration with NSA/CSS on plans and
intentions in order to optimize the SIGINT system;
And, finally, the stated desire of DIA participants to run multi-int ROCK DRILLs focused on
North Korea after participating in ours.
(U//FOUO) Maintaining the momentum, the Korea IMT is currently developing plans for ROCK
DRILL 4 in mid to late January 2004. More details on this event will be published soon on the
Korea IMT Web page , accessible by typing "go nk."
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108