Archive for the 'DPRK Military' Category

Introducing KPA Journal

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Joseph Bermudez, author of several books on North Korea’s military and intelligence services, has launched a new journal focusing on the Korea People’s Army (KPA), KPA Journal. It will be online later this year, but the first iteration can be found at NK Econ Watch.

Better Exchange This Time

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

The last time the North and South Korean navies clashed seriously in 2002, the latter came off badly.
The ROK Navy seems to have been better prepared this time:
According to South Korean officials, fighting erupted when a 215-ton North Korean vessel ventured across the so-called Northern Limit Line, a sea border drawn by the United Nations [...]

Fallout from North Korea’s HEU Admission

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) programs don’t pop-up overnight, especially in third-world backwaters like North Korea. Yet North Korea has announced via state-run media that it is capable of the “final stage of uranium enrichment.”
How shocking! There were no clues! There was no way to know this!
Well, not really. All [...]

The Surprisingly Many Autos of North Korea

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Erik van Ingen Schenau of the China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre has posted a collection of photos of vehicles manufactured in North Korea. A larger variety than I realized, and more than a few named Chollima (천리마).

NK Short-Range Missile Launches Relatively Unimportant

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

The importance of the three short-range missiles launched by North Korea on Monday and the two follow-on launches Tuesday is being overstated in the press and by some politicians; this week is not about short-range missiles but about an apparently functional nuclear device design.
North Korea generally conducts several short-range ground-to-ship or ship-to-ship missile flight [...]

North Korea Plans April 2009 Missile Launch

Friday, March 13th, 2009

In an attempt to quell speculation about a possible ICBM (a missile that typically delivers a nuclear warhead) test launch, North Korea recently signed related international treaties and announced it plans to launch a satellite in early April:
An international maritime agency official said Thursday that the [International Maritime Organization] has received a letter from [...]

17-19 Percent of North Korean Recruits Unfit for Service

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Via UPI: “A recent U.S. National Intelligence Commission report claiming that 1990s famines in the North have rendered many potential soldiers born during the period with “cognitive deficiencies” drew an angry official response from [the KCNA] Saturday… ‘They floated the cock-and-bull story… it is an open secret that the ill-famed intelligence and plot-breeding institutions of [...]

DPRK Peacekeepers in Afghanistan?

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

From the Korea Times (via ROK Drop): “The North Korean army should form part of peacekeeping forces to help reconstruct war-ravaged Afghanistan ― if Pyongyang normalizes relations with the United States, an opposition lawmaker said Thursday.” This from a South Korean Democratic Party (DP) member.

Trouble Brewing along Korea’s NLL?

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

NightWatch has an interesting analysis of a statement issued by North Korea yesterday, which, “carries a credible threat of incidents at sea off the west coast, but omits many of the usual terms of threat.”

Post-Kim Dynasty Korean Peninsula and Beyond

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Predicting the future is a chancy business at best and rarely rewards either the prognosticator or the consumers of the fortunetelling. Nonetheless, I offer the following thoughts as a conversation-starter.
With the recent speculation of Kim Jong-Il’s ill health, incapacitation and perhaps death, it might be useful to conceptualize the political shape of the Korean Peninsula [...]