ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence Daily Brief - January 22, 2024

ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence Daily Brief - January 22, 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

• Baltic States Plan to Build New Defenses on Russian and Belarusian Borders
• South Korea, U.S., and Japan step up collaboration and defense spending to counter China and North Korea
• Two U.S. Navy SEALs Who Went Missing in the Gulf of Aden Declared Dead

Baltic States Plan to Build New Defenses on Russian and Belarusian Borders

On January 19, the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania - signed an agreement to build new defenses along their borders with Russia and Belarus. The defenses will consist of concrete bunkers and other anti-mobility obstacles to slow Russian or Belarusian forces in the event of a ground invasion. The Estonian defense ministry said this agreement arose out of the consensus formed at the NATO summit in Madrid in 2022 that the alliance will defend itself from the first meter of its territory.

South Korea, U.S., and Japan step up collaboration and defense spending to counter China and North Korea

On January 18, South Korea, the U.S., and Japan conducted naval drills in waters south of the Korean Peninsula, near the Jeju Islands. These are the first drills since the three nations began using a real-time system for sharing data on North Korean missile launches. It also comes after an escalation in missile launches from North Korea, which has also removed longstanding agreements to peacefully engage with South Korea over unification, instead stating that unification can only be achieved through conflict. Japan and South Korea have also put aside their own geopolitical disputes in favor of collaboration on defending threats from North Korea and China.

Two U.S. Navy SEALs Who Went Missing in the Gulf of Aden Declared Dead

The U.S. Military has changed the status of the two Navy SEALs who went missing in the Gulf of Aden to deceased “after a 10-day exhaustive search” was unable to locate them. The Navy SEALs were carrying out an operation off the coast of Somalia to seize a boat shipping advanced conventional weapons to Yemeni Houthis. According to earlier defense officials’ reports, a high wave caused one of the SEAL commandos to go overboard with another diving after him, following the protocol for such incidents.