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C-Span Video: “The North Korean Military Threat: Paper Tiger or Ongoing Menace?”

Bruce Bechtol of the Marine Command and Staff College, one of the foremost experts on the North Korean military, talks about its current state of readiness and recent changes to its organization and order of battle.

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  1. Powerful, and well worth the 67 minutes to sit through.

    One thing is certain, either NK is transforming to a SOF-heavy force because they see an Iraq-type scenario coming up or they just can’t afford to feed, arm, equip and fuel a conventional mechanized force anymore.

    What was really captivating is that at least 2 of the panelists believed (one as an eye-winess account) that PKA soldiers are skinny and frail looking.

    The ROK Joint Forces definitely have vulnerabilities that would be fairly easy to exploit without the muscle of the USFK.

    What they didn’t talk about (and I can’t either) is that cyber warfare between Asian powers and the US is red hot.

  2. Can’t, or won’t?

    Also, the video made an excellent point that the north need not capture and occupy all of the south to have devastating effect. They merely need to obliterate Seoul, which is a very achievable goal.

  3. Inflicting heavy damage on Seoul does not equal DPRK victory. It punishes the ROK but justifies a full-scale invasion of NK and a regime change operation. Seoul was taken twice by the DPRK and the CCF in the Korean War and they were driven out both times in eventual defeat.

    I accept his premise prima facie but other panelists also said that NK cannot sustain continuous operations for longer than a few days. It remains to be seen whether the DPRK can obliterate Seoul within a few days while the CFC is steady pounding them by ground, sea and air.

    They also questioned the effectiveness of insertion platforms for the NK SOF. So do I.

  4. PKA Military Retirement Plan: DPRK takes care of its veterans!

    From Good Friends:

    A Beaten Retired Military Officer for Stealing Rice from Nampo Harbor Got a Fortune Thanks to His Wife

    On January 25, a retired officer tried to steal rice at Nampo Harbor, Nampo City of South Pyongan Province got caught and beaten severely by Security Agents and lost consciousness. He was detected by Security Agents guarding this area, and was taken to a storehouse to be interrogated. Although he was released for the fact that he only made an attempt to steal, he had already been beaten a lot and collapsed around the rear gate. Fishermen coming back from their work found him and took him to an emergency room. He had to received an operation immediately because his organs nearly burst with the brutal beating.

    Four months after his retirement he was assigned to a job at a factory, but he was temporarily staying at a room next to a pigsty inside the factory because he did not find any place to live. His wife was worried about expenses for her husband’s operations and treatments, so she wrote a detailed letter about their situation. She wrote the letter to seek help from the Party saying, “My husband who served military for 26 years during the period of Military First Policy did not find any ways to feed his family after his retirement. Because he did not want to let his family starve to death, he tried to steal some rice. He was beaten brutally and now he is in a very critical situation.” His wife went to the front gate of the Provincial Party building of South Pyongan Province in Pyongsung City rather than going to the Nampo City Party. After waiting all day in front of the gate to meet the Organization Secretary of the Provincial Party, she blocked his vehicle and gave him the letter. The secretary read her letter and let officials of the Provincial Party read it and he ordered the Security Agency of Nampo Harbor to compensate him for the beating. He also ordered the Party to provide the victim with a house, medicine, and food by saying, “It is wrong to beat a person severely without any evidence of theft. It is understandable that the retired officer was put in a situation where he had to resort to an illegal act because of the economic difficulties after the retirement.” With this news, residents of Nampo City envied him and said, “Due to the beating, he received one of the best apartments in Nampo and received medicine and food from the City Party and Nampo Harbor Security Agency. The misfortune turned into a fortune.”

    Posted by North Korea Today

    I know there are a lot of military, former military and military associates that read OFK. I knew that the DPRK was a ‘socialist’ country where all ‘comrades’ are equal even under the ‘military first’ policy but this is an eye-opener. Wow.