Korean People's Army

Korean People's Army (KVA) 조선 인민군
guide
Commander in Chief :	Marshal Kim Jong-un
Defense Minister:	General No Kwang-chol
Military Commander:	General Ri Yong-gil
Military strength
Active soldiers:	approx. 1,300,000
Reservists:	4,700,000
Conscription:	Men 11 years women 6 ~ 7 years
Eligibility for military service:	17 to 54
Share of soldiers in the total population:	4.5%
household
Military budget:	approx. US $ 5 billion
Share of gross domestic product :	> 25%
history

Korean spelling
Korean alphabet :	조선 인민군
Hanja :	朝鮮 人民 軍
Revised Romanization :	Joseon inmingun
McCune-Reischauer :	Chosŏn inmingun

Korean People's Army (KVA) is the official name for the armed forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea .

history

According to North Korean historiography, the People's Army was founded on April 25, 1932, to which the characters 4.25 written in gold also refer, by Kim Il-sung as an Anti-Japanese People's Partisan Army . In 1934 it was renamed the Korean People's Revolutionary Army . Apart from a raid on a Japanese police station, which North Korean literature has hyped up to a battle , it did not appear during the period when Korea was a province of Japan .

It has been called the Korean People's Army (KVA) since the North Korean state was founded in 1948 . As early as 1948 it comprised around 200,000 soldiers. As in all satellite states of the Soviet Union , it was deliberately and on a large scale militarily upgraded. Instructors and weapons came from the Soviet Union.

Since the south was hardly armed, Kim Il-sung had the opportunity to attack it on June 25, 1950 in order to unite the country under his rule. With the spearhead of 240 tanks and supported by 210 aircraft, the KVA overran the weak South Korean forces ; After three days, Seoul fell and after 40 days almost the entire south was in the hands of the North Koreans. In response to the UN after the US troops landed at Incheon , almost the entire country was briefly occupied by the south.

→ Main article : Korean War

The war cost the KVA hundreds of thousands of lives and ended in a stalemate in 1953. With Soviet and Chinese help, the almost completely destroyed industry of North Korea was rebuilt with an emphasis on heavy industry and immediately began manufacturing weapons, ammunition and equipment for the KVA.

Strength and equipment

With around 1.3 million active soldiers, North Korea maintains one of the largest armies in the world. Along with China , India and the USA , it is one of only four countries on earth that constantly maintains more than 1 million soldiers in peacetime. In relation to the size of the country and the population, North Korea is by far the most heavily militarized country in the world, with only around 20 civilians per soldier (for comparison: in India there are 865, in the USA 220 and in Germany 456). More than 25% of the gross domestic product goes directly to the military, which is also by far the highest share worldwide (in the NATO countries it is around 2.5% of GDP on average, which is per soldier - and partly also per inhabitant - corresponds to much higher expenditure). This militarization of society is further intensified by an enormous number of paramilitary groups and reservist organizations , which comprise a total of 4.7 million women and men. The official reserve of the KVA alone is divided into 23 divisions and 6 brigades .

According to a report from the South Korean Ministry of Defense, North Korea increased its troops to 1.2 million active soldiers in February 2009. In addition, the number of so-called special units , specially trained and preferably equipped troops for sabotage operations , has now been increased to around 200,000 soldiers. (As of December 2010)

Despite its enormous numerical strength, the KVA is one of the most backward and poorly equipped armies in the world. The reason for this lies in the exceptionally desolate economic situation of the country, which without foreign aid would hardly be able to guarantee the basic supplies of its population. In particular, the import of armaments has become virtually impossible due to international embargoes . The equipment of the Korean People's Army is largely based on Soviet / Russian and Chinese material, which was further developed or used as the basis of our own designs. The main weapon systems of North Korea ( tanks , airplanes and artillery ) are largely technically at the level of the 1960s and 1970s. The few modern devices are often in a very poor condition due to the severely restricted imports and extremely scarce foreign exchange .

The difficult supply situation is in contradiction to the official S'n'gun doctrine, which defines an absolute priority of the armed forces in the state allocation of resources. Reports from 2017 show that the People's Army is being asked to set up its own agricultural production in order to secure supplies. In addition, companies and private individuals are forced to collect rice and everyday items and give them to the armed forces. Scarce and inadequate nutrition as well as poor hygienic conditions lead to widespread health problems in the People's Army.

Nuclear program

→ Main article : North Korean nuclear weapons program

North Korea is pursuing an ambitious program to develop its own nuclear weapons , which culminated in an atomic bomb test on October 9, 2006. Although this was officially described as successful, the low radiation released and the relatively weak underground detonation suggest that the attempt has failed. The North Korean leadership regards the atomic bomb program and the associated development of its own launch vehicles as essential protection against a possible US attack, since a successful defense with the conventional armed forces is considered unlikely.

5 April 2009 North Korea launched - despite worldwide protests - an intercontinental ballistic missile of the type Taepodong-2 and upgraded so that claims to be a communications satellite into space. In the run-up to the launch, Japan had announced that it would shoot down the missile in the event of a loss of control over its territory. The North Korean military then threatened to regard such a shooting as an act of war. Western states assume that the rocket launch was only superficially civil in character and actually served a military purpose to test the failure-prone North Korean missile type. The rocket launch contradicts a UN resolution passed after the 2006 nuclear test .

On May 25, 2009, North Korea carried out another nuclear test. According to Russian sources, the underground detonation reached about the strength of the Hiroshima bomb . The test generated violent reactions from abroad, particularly in Japan, the USA, Russia and Europe. China also took an extremely clear stand against the test. The South Korean army has been placed on heightened alert. After the bomb test, North Korea also launched two short-range missiles and one surface-to-air missile, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency .

In mid-April 2012, North Korea officially declared itself a nuclear power through a constitutional amendment .

Enemy and military doctrine

As the main opponent of North Korea, in addition to South Korea and its alliance partner USA, Japan in particular is perceived, whose colonial policy in Korea during the Second World War continues to cause political explosions to this day. The Juche state ideology , a socialist state theory that is strongly based on autarky , is a basic element of the political indoctrination of the KVA. The extremely tough training in the armed forces due to poor supply and outdated equipment is intended to provoke a high willingness to make sacrifices among soldiers; the service period lasts between three and ten years, depending on the type of service. The KVA is subject to extremely tough discipline and demands unconditional obedience from soldiers of all degrees.

Modernization efforts

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

In 2001, during his visit to Russia, which included armaments factories, Kim Jong-Il expressed an interest in purchasing weapons systems with a down payment of US $ 200 million. Particular interest was for combat aircraft of the type Su-27 SK, Su-30 MK, MiG-29 SMT, Su-25 /39, combat helicopters Mi-35 , air defense systems S-300W and 9K330 Tor-M1 shown and existing for the modernization of weapons systems. North Korea also tried to acquire an entire factory for MiG-23 in Russia. Main battle tanks T-72 M1 or T-90 , armored personnel carriers BTR-80 and BMP-3 should also be purchased. All of these modern weapon systems were apparently intended to be procured for the special forces or elite regiments which, in the event of war, were to be deployed either on the front line or to protect the capital Pyongyang. Moscow refused to do business. With the arms embargo in 2006, further major acquisitions became obsolete.

Armed forces

army

Flag of the Army of the People's Army

→ Main article : Army of the Korean People's Army

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 .

air force

Flag of the Air Force

→ Main article : Korean People's Army Air Force

The North Korean Air Force began as the Korean Aviation Society in 1945 . They were organized along the lines of the aviation clubs in the Soviet Union . In 1946 the company became a military organization and an aviation division of the Korean People's Army . In November 1948 it became an independent military service . The North Korean air force built much of the original Soviet air tactics and the North Korean experience from the UN - bombing during the Korean War .

The North Korean Air Force was also deployed abroad. During the Vietnam War , a fighter squadron was sent to North Vietnam . Kim Il-sung is reported to have told the North Korean pilots to "fight in war as if the Vietnamese sky were their own".

On April 15, 1969, the North Korean Air Force's MiG-21 shot down a Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star in international airspace over the Sea of ​​Japan .

In 1973, a North Korean MiG-21 fleet was sent to Bir Arida to aid in the defense of South Egypt during the Yom Kippur War .

From 1990 to 1991 North Korea operated four advanced air force bases near the DMZ .

marine

Flag of the People's Navy

→ Main article : Navy of the Korean People's Army

Najin-class frigate

The Navy, with its 46,000 man has the smallest branches of the armed force over a frigate of Soho - and two of Najin class as the largest naval units . They are North Korean in-house designs, about which not much can be learned. A size of around 1,500 to 2,000 ts is expected and an armament consisting primarily of artillery and light rapid-fire weapons, supplemented by outdated missile systems for combating sea and air targets. There are also 140 rocket and torpedo speedboats for use near the coast, supplemented by around 75 lightly armed patrol boats , as the backbone of the Navy. 26 diesel-electric submarines of the Russian Romeo and Whiskey class are officially in service, here too the problem of obtaining spare parts should significantly reduce the number of boats actually ready for use. The submarine weapon is supplemented by an unknown number of small submarines ( Sang-o-class ), which are primarily used to drop spy and reconnaissance troops in South Korea . Such primitive, but in the fulfillment of their task quite effective boats have often fallen into the hands of the South Korean Navy through accidents or technical defects (see Korean submarine incident (1996) ). The international investigation report on the case ascribes the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan to a torpedo fired from such a mini-submarine .

The Navy also has a remarkably strong amphibious component of about 270 DropShips (of which about 130 hovercraft ), which is also the offensive combat doctrine North Korea stresses. To support amphibious operations, 23 small mine-layers and around 100 small coastal gunboats are available.

On April 23, 2016, off the east coast near the city of Sinp'o-shi ( Hamgyŏng-namdo province ), a submarine-supported ballistic missile (SLBM) was deployed for the first time from a submerged, conventionally operated submarine (probably project 629 , NATO code name: Golf II class). The rocket flew around 30 kilometers.

On August 24, 2016, a submarine-supported ballistic missile (SLBM) of the type KN-11 was successfully launched again off the east coast near the city of Sinp'o-shi, contrary to international agreements. The missile flew around 500 kilometers in the direction of the Japanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Ranks

	Korean in Hangul ( Hanja ), romanization	German	Epaulette
Marshal 원 수급 (元帥 級), wŏnsukŭp	대원수 (大元帥), taewŏnsu	Generalissimo
	공화국 원수 (共和國 元帥), konghwakuk wŏnsu	Marshal of the DPRK
	인민군 원수 (人民 軍 元帥), Inmingun wonsu	Marshal of the People's Army
	차수 (次 帥), ch'asu	Vice-Marshal
	Korean in Hangul ( Hanja ), romanization	Army / Air Force	Epaulette (army)	Shoulder flap (air force)	marine	Epaulette
General 장령 급 (將領 級), changryŏngkŭp	대장 (大將), taechang	Army General			Fleet Admiral
	상장 (上將), sangchang	Colonel General			admiral
	중장 (中將), chungchang	Lieutenant General			Vice admiral
	소장 (少將), sochang	Major general			Rear admiral
Staff officer 좌 관급 (佐 官 級), chwakwankŭp	대좌 (大佐), taechwa	Brigadier			Sea captain
	상좌 (上 佐), sangchwa	Colonel			Frigate captain
	중좌 (中 佐), chungchwa	Lieutenant colonel			Corvette Captain
	소좌 (少佐), sochwa	major			Staff Captain Lieutenant
Subaltern Officer 위 관급 (尉官 級), Wigwangeub	대위 (大尉), taewi	Captain			Lieutenant captain
	상위 (上尉), sangwi	First lieutenant			First lieutenant at sea
	중위 (中尉), chungwi	lieutenant			Lieutenant at sea
	소위 (少尉), as well	Sub-lieutenant			Second lieutenant at sea
Sergeant 하사관 급 (下 士官 級), hasakwankŭp	특무 상사 (特務 上士), t'ŭkmusangsa	Staff Sergeant			Chief of Staff
	상사 (上士), sangsa	Sergeant Major			Chief Boatswain
	중사 (中士), chungsa	sergeant			Captain
	하사 (下士), hasa	Sergeant			Boatswain
Soldier 전사 급 (戰士 級), chŏnsakŭp	상급 병사 (上級 兵士), sangkŭppyŏngsa	Corporal			Corporal
	중급 병사 (中級 兵士), chungkŭppyŏngsa	Private			Private
	초급 병사 (初級 兵士), ch'okŭppyŏngsa	Corporal			Senior Seaman
	전사 (戰士), ​​chŏnsa	soldier			sailor

See also

• Kyŏksul

literature

• WA Mazulenko: The Korean People's Army. Berlin: German military publishing house , 1962, without ISBN
• Olaf Groehler : The Korean War 1950 to 1953. Berlin: Military Publishing House of the GDR, 1980, without ISBN
• James M. Minnich: The North Korean People's Army. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-525-2
• History of the North Korean Army. Ft. Leavenworth 1952 ( Combined Arms Research Library has 3-part .pdf)

Web links

Commons : Korean People's Army  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• North Korea's Conventional Forces visualized | National Post , National Post, Toronto, Ontario, as of 2013. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
• Forces overview on GlobalDefence.net, as of December 2005. Accessed December 29, 2015.
• North Korea Weapons on GlobalSecurity.org (English)
• Pyongyang missile arsenal infographic

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Background Note: North Korea. , US Department of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, August 2008.
2. ^ North Korea continues to arm , Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 17, 2010.
3. ↑ Study: North Korea's Army Increases Special Forces , Spiegel Online from December 30, 2010.
4. ↑ Military ordered to gather its own rice. In: Daily NK . October 20, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2017 .  (English)
5. ↑ Moldy cornmeal blamed for soldiers' diarrhea. In: Daily NK . November 30, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2017 .  (English)
6. ↑ [1] (tagesschau.de archive)
7. ↑ North Korea provokes with rocket launch. In: Tagesschau. ARD, April 5, 2009, archived from the original on June 9, 2010 ; Retrieved on February 2, 2016 (original website no longer available).  
8. ↑ Beijing sharply criticizes Pyongyang , Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 17, 2010.
9. ↑ Nuclear test: North Korea ignites more missiles , Der Tagesspiegel of May 25, 2009.
10. ↑ North Korea fires more missiles , Die Zeit, May 27, 2009.
11. ↑ North Korea is officially making itself a nuclear power , Focus from May 31, 2012.
12. ↑ M-2002 P'okpoong-ho on globalsecurity.org (English).
13. ↑ https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/kn-09-kn-ss-x-9/
14. ↑ https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/koksan-m1978/
15. ^ Paul M. Edwards: Historical Dictionary of the Korean War . 2nd Edition. Scarecrow Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-7461-9 , pp. 151 .
16. ↑ Richard Bennett: Missiles and madness. In: Asia Times. August 18, 2006, Retrieved November 13, 2019 (Japanese). 
17. ^ Franz-Stefan Gady: War of the Dragons: Why North Korea Does Not Trust China. In: The Diplomat. September 29, 2017, accessed November 13, 2019 . 
18. ↑ Caroline Gluck: N Korea admits Vietnam was role July 7, 2001. In: BBC News. March 8, 2008, accessed November 13, 2019 . 
19. ^ N Korea in 'US spy plane' warning. In: BBC News. June 11, 2006, accessed November 13, 2019 . 
20. ↑ Dario Leone: An unknown story from the Yom Kippur war: Israeli F-4s vs North Korean MiG-21s. In: The Aviationist. June 24, 2013, accessed November 13, 2019 . 
21. ^ Joint Investigation Report On the Attack Against the ROKS Ship Cheonan . September 2010. Archived from the original on October 16, 2011. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
22. ^ Bill Powell: South Korea's Case for How the Cheonan Sank ( EN ) Time . August 13, 2010. Archived from the original on August 16, 2010. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
23. ↑ North Korea Says Submarine Ballistic Missile Test 'Great Success'. Huffington Post, April 24, 2016, accessed April 24, 2016 . 
24. ^ North Korea fires submarine-launched ballistic missile towards Japan. Reuters , August 24, 2016, accessed August 27, 2016 . 
25. ↑ North Korea has these missiles. North Korea provokes again with a missile test. The infographic gives an overview of Pyongyang's missile arsenal. In: srf.ch. August 29, 2017, archived from the original on August 13, 2018 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .