A new threat looms over Ukraine. According to kyiv but also Seoul, 12,000 North Korean soldiers are preparing to converge on the front in support of Russian troops. Moscow denies this but, according to the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), the North’s soldiers are already training in military bases in the Russian Far East, in Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk.
As confirmation, Ukrainian services released a video showing the North Koreans receiving their packages. They are equipped with Russian uniforms and weapons, as well as fake identity cards posing as residents of the far eastern region of Yakutia-Buriatia. “The Buryats resemble Koreans,” says the NIS.
It is difficult to measure the impact that these North Korean forces will have. On paper, however, they look great. Still according to the NIS, Pyongyang mobilized four brigades of the famous 11th corps, called the “Storm Corps”, an elite unit stationed in Deokcheon, in the province of North Pyongan (in the northwest of the country).
This corps is a distant heir of Unit 124, a commando of 31 soldiers formed in the 1960s to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung-hee (1961-1979). On January 21, 1968, the commando managed to infiltrate the South and reach the Blue House, the South Korean presidency. South Korean forces eliminated him, but the experience served as a foundation for the North’s special forces.
“Human torpedoes”
In 1983, Pyongyang brought together its best units to create the Storm Corps. This unit is today the pillar of the special forces, whose numbers are estimated by the American and South Korean services at 200,000 members. The 11th Corps would have 60,000, divided into units of light infantry, paratroopers or even snipers, deployed within the army, the navy, the air force and the General Reconnaissance Bureau, military intelligence.
Defined according to the idea of an asymmetric conflict, their missions consist of “attacking and destroying targets, destabilizing the enemy’s rear, carrying out terrorist attacks, neutralizing strategic and tactical installations (communication stations, missile bases, airfields, etc.),” according to an analysis by Anthony H. Cordesman, Charles Ayers and Aaron Lin published in 2016 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Within the People’s Army – the North Korean army – with 1.28 million soldiers, members of the special forces are proudly nicknamed the “human torpedoes” (navy), the “invincibles” (army of air) and the “human bombs protecting the heart of the revolution” (land army). This military “tool” plays a dissuasive role against any desire to attack the North in a conventional manner.
Pampered by the regime, the 11th Corps welcomed leader Kim Jong-un on several occasions. According to the NIS, the leader’s last visits date back to September 11 and October 2.
North Korea has already sent pilots to Egypt and Vietnam (to which it has also provided advisors). It has also deployed military advisors and instructors to the Middle East and Africa, including Libya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. If the deployment in Russia is confirmed, it would be the first time that it has sent such a large land force abroad.
While Moscow and Pyongyang signed a strategic partnership treaty in June which commits the two countries to support each other militarily, North Korean elite troops could soon experience their baptism of fire.
“For North Korea, which has supplied Russia with millions of shells and missiles, it is essential to become familiar with different weapons and gain practical combat experience”, says Lim Eul-chul of the Seoul-based Institute of Far Eastern Studies. In exchange, Pyongyang should benefit from new Russian military technologies. At the same time, there is a fear that these soldiers will try to desert, for a West more prosperous than their country of origin.
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