Song Mi-ryung on 91% Chinese Farmland Survey Drones: 'Due to Budget, But Security Measures in Place'

Concerns were raised during a parliamentary audit over security vulnerabilities after it was revealed that 91 percent of the drones utilized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for comprehensive farmland surveys are made in China.

During the National Assembly Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee audit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) today (October 7), People Power Party lawmaker Kim Yong-tae pointed out, "Out of 103 drones used for comprehensive farmland surveys, 94 of them, or 91 percent, are Chinese-made," adding, "Among the drones deployed in Gyeonggi and Gangwon regions, which have a high concentration of military units, 95 percent are Chinese-made."

According to lawmaker Kim, among the 103 drones deployed for farmland surveys, products from the Chinese manufacturer DJI were the most common at 94 units, followed by 5 units from the United States and 4 from South Korea.

In particular, out of the 41 drones deployed to photograph farmland in the border areas of Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces, 39 units (95.1 percent) were DJI products.

Lawmaker Kim also noted that the software used to process drone footage is "Metashape," produced by the Russian company Agisoft.

In response to Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-ryung's reply that "(Chinese-made drones were used) due to budget issues," lawmaker Kim pressed back, asking, "Isn't it a very dangerous mindset not to conduct security reviews on budget grounds when collecting national geographic information and databases?"

Minister Song explained, "Regarding that matter, we are implementing our own security measures," adding, "We are managing the system so that collected data is not transmitted externally."

Lawmaker Kim repeatedly pointed out that when he inquired with the Korea Rural Community Corporation whether it had conducted security reviews and evaluated alternative software for the video processing software, he received a "not conducted" response for both.

Minister Song stated, "We manage the data to prevent external transmission, and footage is stored exclusively on internal servers by separating external and internal networks so that it does not go out to the external network," adding, "We have established and are enforcing internal security guidelines regarding drone operations and footage management."

Lawmaker Kim repeatedly criticized, "What country in the world would use products from another country that could pose security concerns for photographing its national territory just because of budget issues?" and added, "The U.S. Army has also banned DJI products, and Switzerland and Denmark have implemented bans as well."

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs released an explanatory statement today stating that the drones used for farmland surveys are operated in a manner that blocks data transmission to external servers.

The ministry stated, "We activate Local Data Mode (LDM) during drone flights to store captured data only on the aircraft and controller, and SD cards containing the captured footage are kept on the internal servers of the Korea Rural Community Corporation, where external networks are blocked."

Furthermore, the ministry explained that when contracted vendors handle the filming, they use custom-built programs instead of the drone manufacturer's application to prevent captured footage and location information from being automatically saved to external servers, stating, "We will continue to maintain rigorous security management to ensure that data is not leaked externally."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.