Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- South Korea's home-made K-14 sniper rifle capable of shooting down the enemy at a distance of up to one kilometer has been distributed to all frontline infantry units, along with an observation device featuring a thermal imaging camera and a high-precision laser. It took almost nine years since the rifle was first distributed to special forces in 2013.

K14 is a .308 Winchester bolt-action sniper rifle that comes with a daytime scope, night vision sight and other accessories. South Korea began introducing the rifle to cope with North Korea's sniper force. The communist country has maintained large numbers of specially trained and equipped snipers at platoon and even squad level.

The distribution of sniper rifles was expanded to infantry battalions in late 2017, but the deployment of home-made observation devices was completed in December 2020, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) controlled by the defense ministry said in a statement on January 26.

"The combat power of front-line troops has greatly improved as sniper rifles and observation equipment have been expanded to general infantry units," Won Ho-joon, a DAPA official, was quoted as saying. The agency vowed to improve the performance of its sniper equipment for exports, citing South Korea's accumulated technology.
  The observation device's daytime telescope can recognize people from 1.5 to 2.5 kilometers (1.55 miles) away, the agency said, adding that at night, it can identify the target from 500 to 1.5 km away through a thermal imaging camera, even in foggy conditions.

The target can be detected quickly by absorbing fine rays such as moonlight and starlight at night, while the high-precision laser accurately measures the distance and can observe the target behind the window. The lens is equipped with a "kill flash" that does not reflect light.