North Korea has returned to normal following a period of military mobilization. Upon the completion of mass gatherings organized to commemorate the third nuclear test on February 12th, all reserve forces have been stood down and laborers have returned to their workplaces.
The order to adopt a state of heightened military readiness was handed down at the end of last month, after Kim Jong Eun convened a very public meeting of high-ranking military and foreign affairs officials to declare that there would be a strong response to UN Security Council Resolution 2087. The response came, as widely anticipated, in the form of the third nuclear detonation.
A Yangkang Province source told Daily NK on the 18th, “There hadn’t been any military exercises related to the ‘preparation for combat mobilization’ since the nuclear test happened last week, and they lifted the military mobilization order for Worker and Peasant Red Guards and other reserve forces at around the time of Kim Jong Il’s birthday.”
“Soldiers were ordered onto special guard because of the holiday [Gwangmyungsung Day, the anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s birth on the 16th], but they did stop referring to stuff like ‘strengthening our defenses against the US imperialists,’ which they went on about every day for the two weeks before that,” the source added. “Everything is back to normal, with the normal annual exercises and regulation guard patrols still on.”
In most years, North Korea conducts so-called winter drills; military exercises that begin in December, end in March and involve both the regular military and all reserve forces.
However, “Many reservists had started saying that since the combat mobilization was for the nuclear test, wasn’t it time to ratchet down the tension a bit,” the source added. “Now those cadres who had been overseeing the exercises from bunkers on-base have come out and are taking it a bit easier.”
A state of combat mobilization is a regular feature of periods following a missile or nuclear test, and the subsequent implementation of international sanctions. These periods are not always formally ended by a second declaration; instead, they simply fade into insignificance.
