To ensure that only North Korea’s finest gamers are allowed across the border into South Korea, the South Korean military is now securing the DMZ (demilitarized zone) with Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. Just kidding — it has nothing to do with gaming, and all about keeping the border secure. It turns out that Kinect is a very good and cheap way to differentiate between animals and errant North Koreans trying to cross the border, and triggering automatic alerts at nearby South Korean military outposts if a human is detected.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone, which is 160 miles long, 2.5 miles wide, and separates the countries of North and South Korea, has been in place since 1953. Despite its name, it’s the actually the most militarized border in the world. Entering the DMZ, irrespective of which side you’re on, means certain death — if you’re human, anyway. You see, as it turns out, turning a patch of land into a DMZ is really, really good for the wildlife. For 60 years, the DMZ has essentially been untouched by humans — and as a result, it’s one of the finest examples of temperate habitat in the world. All sorts of endangered species are believed to live there, including the red-crowned crane, the Korean leopard and tiger, and Asian black bear.

If it wasn’t for all the land mines, the Korean DMZ would be an amazing national park. South Korea has applied for the area to be turned into a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but North Korea petitioned against it. Who knows — maybe one day, if the artistic differences between the two Koreas can be worked out, the DMZ will become the world’s best temperate-climate nature reserve.

Anyway, back to the story: South Korea monitors the DMZ with infrared motion sensors, but these sensors lack the ability to differentiate between animals and people. Enter Kinect. The South Korean military says it has been using a Kinect-based system, developed by Microsoft MVP Jae Kwan Ko, that can quickly and reliably pick out human intruders. The system has been in place since August 2013. As is fairly usual for military tech, we don’t have a whole lot of details on how the system actually works, beyond the fact that it alerts a nearby military outpost when a human is detected. The press release implies that the system is impressive because a) it’s cheap, and b) Kwan Ko was a self-taught wunderkind who defeated all the odds to become a Microsoft MVP.

Moving forward, Ko told a South Korean news site that a future version of the system will use the Xbox One’s Kinect 2.0, which will allow for better range, accuracy, and heart beat detection. Then, I guess, all that remains is to hook the system up to some kind of automated gun turret…