It is impossible to train ‘200,000 special forces’ due to North Korea’s economic power, the poorest country… ‘Game changer’ nonsense
North Korea is the most closed country in the world and information is rarely made public. A representative misunderstanding regarding North Korea, a hidden country, is about North Korean special forces. This misunderstanding is leading to an overestimation of the so-called ‘Storm Corps’ that North Korea recently dispatched to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Misunderstandings about the North Korean military planted by the media
Fear stemming from misunderstandings about North Korean special forces is deep-rooted. For example, in the movie ‘Shiri’ released in 1999, North Korean special forces were depicted as a hundred human weapons, while the South Korean military and intelligence and special agents were portrayed as a ragtag bunch that fell like leaves in a cold wind. Such depictions are almost common in North Korea-related movies and dramas released since then. In the 2013 box-office hit ‘Secretly, Greatly’, North Korean special forces soldiers jump onto the roof of a building and fire their guns in a flash. In ‘Steel Rain’, released in 2017, there is a scene where North Korean special forces invade a place guarded by special forces agents, immediately wipe out the South Korean military and occupy the facility. Perhaps because of the media’s portrayal, North Korean special forces are seen as elite combatants who cannot be compared to the South Korean military. So, are they really a ‘secret and great’ organization made up of world-class special agents?
The troops commonly referred to as North Korean special forces are today units affiliated with an independent military branch called the ‘Special Operations Force’. North Korea’s special forces originated from the 17th Reconnaissance Brigade, which was established after the Korean War. This unit, designated as a special operations unit in 1968, absorbed the 124th Army Unit, which was deployed in the Blue House attack in the same year, and the 283rd Army Unit, another special forces unit, and was expanded and reorganized under the name of the ‘8th Special Corps’ the following year. This unit was reorganized into the ‘Reconnaissance Bureau’ and ‘Guardian Guard Bureau’ in 1983, and was renamed the 11th Corps in 1991. The 11th Corps is externally referred to as the ‘630th Combined Unit’ or the ‘465th Military Unit’, and its nickname within North Korea is the ‘Storm Corps’. In addition, the Navy Maritime Sniper Brigade, Air Force Aviation Sniper Brigade, and independent operational units, the 525th Special Operations Battalion and the 41st Amphibious Assault Battalion, are added to form the Special Operations Force.
North Korean special forces are divided into seven types depending on their mission: sniper, light infantry, air and land combat, maritime sniper, air sniper, amphibious assault, and mountaineering. The Storm Corps consists of 3 sniper brigades, 4 light infantry brigades, and 3 aviation and ground brigades. Separately, there are two maritime sniper brigades and one amphibious assault battalion in the Navy, and two aviation sniper brigades in the Air Force. What specific missions do North Korean special forces undertake? The term ‘sniper’ unit comes from the Russian word ‘strelkovy (стрелко′вый)’, which means rifleman, not ‘sniper’, who performs long-distance precision shooting with a sniper firearm. Playing a similar role to the Korean Special Forces and the American Green Berets, they are an infiltration operation unit specializing in rear strikes and have been given the title ‘Thunderbolt’ by National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il. The light infantry unit literally means light infantry, and in the Korean military, it is equivalent to a special forces brigade or a U.S. military ranger regiment. Unlike the South Korean Special Forces Brigade or the U.S. Army Ranger Regiment, which uses helicopters and vehicles to infiltrate at high speeds, they are minimally armed and infiltrate the enemy’s rear on foot to carry out disruption operations. Kim Jong-il gave this unit the title ‘Lightning’ in the spirit of quick hit and run. Airborne troops are paratroopers who infiltrate behind enemy lines by aircraft. Although it has similar characteristics to the Russian Airborne Forces, there are significant differences. Unlike the Russian Airborne Forces, which use large transport planes to drop armored vehicles behind enemy lines, North Korean airborne troops simply fly airplanes and land behind enemy lines to perform light infantry missions.
200,000 North Korean special forces? To properly train people, we need to spend 25 times our GDP.
The maritime snipers and aviation snipers, special forces belonging to the Navy and Air Force, are separate units with different characteristics from the storm corps subordinate sniper brigade or aviation land brigade. Marine snipers are the same type of soldier as the Korean UDT/SEALs who enter the enemy’s rear coast via infiltration means such as submarines and semi-submersibles and perform facility strike missions. Aviation snipers enter the enemy’s rear area by aircraft and mainly attack airfields and radar bases.
Since coming to power, North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un has frequently exposed special forces to the media through several military parades and training inspections. In particular, the special forces soldiers in the videos and photos reported by North Korean media are equipped with such modern equipment that it is difficult to believe they are North Korean soldiers. For this reason, there is a widespread perception that North Korea’s special forces are truly composed of only a hundred elite agents. However, if you have minimal knowledge of special warfare, it is not difficult to see how sloppy ‘amateurs’ the Storm Corps and major special forces units exposed by North Korea to the media are.
Many media outlets say, “North Korea is a country with the world’s largest special forces unit, numbering 200,000 people,” and “in particular, 60,000 of them are elite forces carrying out advanced special operations.” However, this is a product of ignorance that comes from not knowing how much money and time goes into training one special operations agent. By the standards of Western developed countries such as the United States and Europe, it would take 4 to 5 years and 2 to 3 million dollars (approximately 2.76 to 4.1 billion won) to raise one special forces member with the ‘minimum level to play his role’. It costs 50 million won. Of course, this only calculates the cost of training the personnel, and does not include salaries or allowances as professional soldiers. To train 200,000 special forces members, a simple calculation would cost 400 to 600 billion dollars (approximately 553.7 trillion to 830 trillion won). Last year, North Korea’s real gross domestic product (GDP), estimated by the Bank of Korea, was about 32.32 trillion won, which is less than the gross regional product of Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul (about 44 trillion won as of 2021). This means that if North Korea were to maintain 200,000 special forces, it would not be enough to spend more than 25 times its GDP every year.
In fact, if you take a closer look at the images of North Korean special forces exposed in the media, they are at a pitiful level, not even reaching the level of civilian clubs, let alone special forces. They barely show any professionalism worthy of being called a special forces member. For example, special forces soldiers who appear at military parades or Kim Jong-un inspection training rarely wear plate carriers, or bulletproof vests. The plate carrier must be worn so that the bulletproof plate is positioned between the upper abdomen and the collarbone, where major organs and vital points are located. Among North Korean special forces, it is impossible to find anyone wearing such proper equipment. This means that they do not even know how to wear basic body armor. Moreover, since the bulletproof panel is not inserted into the plate carrier, it is often seen to be loose. The mission equipment is also in disarray.
The pitiful behavior of the ‘special forces’ exposed in North Korean state media
A member demonstrating close assault combat shoots at close range with a 4x sniper scope mounted on a Type 98 assault rifle, while during tactical maneuvers, everyone runs across the field and fires rifles without any concept of front line, main unit, or rear support. Do it. In March of this year, an unprecedented ‘comedy’ was produced during the aviation and ground troops’ infiltration training behind enemy lines, which Chairman Kim Jong-un personally observed with his daughter Joo-ae.
If it is an airborne unit’s mission to infiltrate the enemy’s rear, the ‘HAHO’ or ‘HALO’ method must be used, in which each member individually jumps from the aircraft, takes a stance, and then drops. At the time, North Korean aviation ground soldiers jumped from a transport plane using the ‘Static line jump’ method, which is only used during beginner descent training. This method is used in case beginners are frightened or embarrassed and are unable to determine the timing to open the parachute. This is a method that connects the parachute opening ring to the aircraft drop device and automatically unfolds 3 to 4 seconds after the jump. Despite using this descent method, North Korea’s elite air and ground soldiers were unable to control their parachute posture, creating an absurd situation in which they fell together in the air. Photos released by North Korean state media showed these absurd scenes. Of course, the crew members who landed on the ground also showed staged shooting and assault scenes that had nothing to do with ‘tactics’. This part clearly shows how untrained and ragtag they are.
The Storm Corps, a superficial special forces unit, was deployed on a rotational basis to border security missions in the Yalu River and Duman River areas from 2021 to 2023, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. This was a special measure taken after the border guard under the Ministry of State Security failed to prevent the influx of people from outside and North Korean defectors. They spent three years standing guard at the border post, plundering and oppressing the residents. Due to lack of budget and supplies, people who were unable to receive proper training during peacetime have been sent to guard duty in recent years. Can such a force really demonstrate the combat power worthy of being called a special forces unit? The Kursk-Donbas region, the battlefield where the Storm Corps will fight, is a heterogeneous environment that North Korean soldiers have never encountered before. In the fall and winter, trench foot will have to have necrotic feet or legs amputated due to the cold mud, and in the summer, waterborne infectious diseases caused by polluted water will plague the Storm Corps. This means that the North Korean military will suffer enormous non-combat losses even before it can carry out its combat mission. Moreover, the commanders leading them are Russian military officers who have clearly revealed their incompetence over the past three years. In this situation, can the Storm Corps, with only 12,000 members, have a significant impact on the Ukrainian war situation? ‘Irrational’ is a word used in this situation.
〈This article Weekly Donga It was published in issue 1462〉
Lee Il-woo, Secretary General of the Independent Defense Network