Retirees from the Storm Corps receive the military title of “Reserve Lieutenant” and are mobilized along with other discharged military personnel in emergencies.
If high school graduates enter the “Storm Corps,” they have to do 13 years of military service, a three-year “military service of loyalty” extension after the standard ten year term.
Kim explained the training level of the “Storm Corps,” saying that special forces soldiers “go through much more intense training than regular soldiers”. “The most difficult thing for a new recruit is extra training after the scheduled daily tasks. After the evening check-up, squad leaders take cadets out and make them exercise for an hour including sparring, kicking, balancing and pull ups, and then makes them run up a 200m mountainside with a mattress on their back.”
The North Korean military announces a new training program every December 1st, from December to March it is winter drill then from June to September summer drill is in session. The drill periods are the same for the “Storm Corps.”
“Storm Corps” training is two-way training. They are divided into two: one stays on the North Korean side, while one is disguised as a South Korean soldier. Such so-called South Korean military possess M16 automatics and K-1 automatic rifles. They also have necessary information such as Korean military songs, for example “the real man” and Kyungsang provincial dialect for use when they take part in espionage and harassment tactics. They wear South Korean 1950s’ military uniforms.
However, Kim said wryly, “I realized how useless the training I received to get adjusted to the enemies’ natural features and social situations was after I got to South Korea. This education was not all that handy.”
Kim explained, “During the training, the soldiers are trained in a “real-wartime environment” where they attack, destroy, and overcome obstacles while being trained in parachute jumping, swimming and approaching targets according to the training material.”
Kim stated that not much has changed in terms of North Korean weapons; the only thing was that the 7.62mm automatic rifle has been replaced by a 5.45 mm light machine gun developed as a more compact weapon.
In North Korea, military personnel often harm residents of the region during training. The “Storm Corps” also caused problems big and small while showing off their skills as soldiers of the “Storm Corps.” It is for this reason that some soldiers of the corps were mobilized for construction of the Pyongyang-Hyangsan express way back in 1989 as punishment.
Kim expressed his negative feeling about the whole experience, “I spent 13 long years in the special corps and yet all I had left when I was discharged was the Reserve Lieutenant title, a diploma from the Communist College, a savings account with just 8000 won from the discharge payment and a certificate of discharge from the Storm Corps.”
