ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence Daily Brief - January 10, 2024

ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence Daily Brief - January 10, 2024

ZeroFox physical security experts collect, curate, and analyze information derived from open and proprietary sources for comprehensive context of the circumstances surrounding global events. Here is today’s daily roundup of major developments.

Brief Highlights

• Turkey and Egypt Join Somalia in Condemning Ethiopia and Somaliland's Controversial Agreement
• South Korea Nullifies the Inter-Korean Buffer Zone After North Korean Artillery Drills
• New Political Party Formed Ahead of Key German Elections in June and September

Turkey and Egypt Join Somalia in Condemning Ethiopia and Somaliland's Controversial Agreement

As of January 9, Turkey, Egypt, and the Arab League recently joined Somalia in condemning Ethiopia over a controversial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) allowing Ethiopia to use a stretch of Somaliland's coast in exchange for the official recognition of the country as a sovereign entity. Meanwhile, army chiefs from Ethiopia and Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, held a meeting to discuss military cooperation. Somalia, which considers Somaliland a part of the country, nullified the tentative agreement on January 7 and condemned Ethiopia for violating its territorial sovereignty. African Union (AU) officials have called for both countries to de-escalate the situation.

South Korea Nullifies the Inter-Korean Buffer Zone After North Korean Artillery Drills

On January 8, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced the military would resume artillery firings and drills near the sea and land borders separating North Korea. For years, both sides have refrained from conducting drills near the buffer zone. The removal of the buffer zone increases the prospect of a military engagement between both sides. Each side is likely to retaliate against the other incursions in the zone, which increases the risk of a miscalculation or an arrant artillery launch. The announcement came after North Korea fired hundreds of artillery near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea between the two states, on January 5.

New Political Party Formed Ahead of Key German Elections in June and September

On January 8, popular politician Sahra Wagenknecht announced the creation of a new political party temporarily called the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). Wagenknecht and forty of her colleagues have left the Die Linke (Left Party) to form a new grouping in the national parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bundestag. The political party will stand candidates in the June European Union-wide elections and three state elections in Germany in September. While Wagenknecht is generally regarded as a left-leaning politician and was a member of several left-leaning parties throughout her career, she is mostly left-leaning on only economic issues. Her widespread popularity will likely not only take voters away from more established parties, mainly the Left Party, which she is leaving but also the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Expect her party to perform well in the state elections in September.