Army of the Korean People's Army

Army of the Korean People's Army
Flag of the Army of the Korean People's Army
Lineup	August 20, 1947
Country	North Korea
Armed forces	Korean People's Army
Type	Armed forces ( army )
Strength	approx. 1,200,000 soldiers
guide
Commander in chief	Marshal Kim Jong-un

The Army of the Korean People's Army (조선 인민군 륙군, English : Korean People's Military Land Group ) are the land forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea .

history

The Land Forces of the Korean People's Army was established on August 20, 1947. When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, it was superior to the South Korean armed forces in terms of both number of soldiers and equipment. North Korean army units that fought in the Korean War included the I. Corps, the II. And III. Corps . The IV. Corps and the V Corps, the VI. and V Corps were formed after the outbreak of war. The divisions included the 105th Panzer Division , the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 19th and 43rd Infantry Divisions . During the Korean War, it also contained a number of independent units such as the 766th Infantry Regiment .

In 1960, the army was likely to have employed less than 400,000 soldiers and, before 1972, probably not had much more than that number. In the next two decades, the fighting strength then grew massively. In 1992 there were already 950,000 soldiers. Before this expansion, the South Korean army outnumbered the North Korean land forces. From the 1970s, South Korea began to outperform North Korea economically. This allowed South Korea to modernize its armed forces, which in turn alarmed North Korea and led to the expansion of the North Korean armed forces. The weaker of the two Koreas retained the larger force. The size, organization, disposition and combat capabilities of the land forces give Pyongyang military capabilities, both for limited offensive operations to attack the lower half of the peninsula and for limited defensive operations against any perceived threat from South Korea.

Skalapino and Lee's Communism in Korea: The Society provided an organizational chart in 1972 showing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th Army Groups. The 1st, 2nd, and 5th had four divisions plus a brigade or regiment ; the 3rd had four divisions and the 7th had three divisions and three brigades. Scalapino and Lee used The North Korean Yearbook published by South Korea . A declassified CIA 1971 document referring to a 1970 DIA rating appears to suggest that 1st Army Group comprised the 13th and 47th Infantry Divisions.

Yossef Bodansky's Crisis in Korea reports on the North Korean order of battle from 1984-88. The 1st, 2nd and 5th Army Groups, each with four divisions and one independent brigade, covered the eastern, western and central sectors of the DMZ . The III., VI. Corps and VII Corps were deployed around Wonsan and the coastal areas, while IV Corps, recently converted from 4th Army Group, was deployed around Pyongyang. All corps had the virtually standard four divisions and one independent brigade under command, with the exception of VII Corps, which had three divisions and three brigades. The army groups were referred to as attack troops, while the corps also had ground-holding tasks. The III, VI, and VII Corps began forming armored and mechanized units in 1985.

Over time, this organization has adapted to the particular circumstances of the KVA military problem and to the development of North Korean military doctrine and thought.

In 1996, a significant part of the staff along with local government officials of the VI. Corps arrested and convicted of bribery and corruption . The headquarters of the VI. Corps located in Ch'ŏngjin was responsible for military activities throughout Hamgy Hamng-pukto province . It consisted of three infantry divisions, four missile brigades and one artillery division . Joseph F. Bermudez reports in Shield of the Great Leader that the incident was not a coup , but it is often portrayed as such. The corps was disbanded and its units reassigned, some to the IX. Corps in Hamgyŏng-pukto Province. The IX. Corps now includes the 24th Division and the 42nd Division.

Current status

The army currently comprises around 1,200,000 soldiers, divided into 40 divisions and around 40 brigades , of which 20 brigades are designated as special units for airborne and amphibious operations in the rear of the enemy. The army has around 3,600 mostly outdated tanks ( T-54 and T-55 ); According to Russian sources, there are even T-34 tanks from the Second World War in active service, plus around 1,000 of the Ch'ŏnma-ho , which they developed themselves .

When Kim Jong-Il visited Russia in 2001 , he visited the Uralwagonsawod plant , which belongs to the Transmashholding and, among other things, builds the T-90 . In 2002 a tank was spotted during tests near Pyongyang under the designation M-2002.

It was confirmed that North Korea had developed the amphibious tank PT-76 into the PT-85 , but its introduction is difficult due to the desolate state of the armaments factories. Experts estimate that only 20 series vehicles have been delivered since the mid-1990s.

A disproportionately large part of the army is made up of tube and rocket artillery ( BM-21 , BM-24 , KN-09 ). North Korea has around 4,700 self-propelled howitzers and self-propelled guns , around 20,000 guns, and rocket and grenade launchers . M-1978 Koksan has a range of up to 60 km with rocket-propelled projectiles and can hit all of Seoul with it .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 47TH INFANTRY DIVISION FIRST ARMY GROUP NORTH KOREA. In: Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved November 13, 2019 . 
2. ^ Yossef Bodansky: Crisis in Korea . SPI Books, New York City 1994, ISBN 978-1-56171-332-5 , pp. 87-88 .
3. ^ Joseph F. Bermudez: Shield of the Great Leader . 2001.
4. ↑ Kim So Yeol: Remembering the Coup d'etat in 1996. In: Daily NK. February 5, 2011, accessed November 13, 2019 . 
5. ↑ M-2002 P'okpoong-ho on globalsecurity.org (English).
6. ↑ https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/kn-09-kn-ss-x-9/
7. ↑ https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/koksan-m1978/