The North Korean military recently distributed a rubric for assessing the winter exercises, which will be concluding at the end of this month. But the orders have unexpectedly instructed units to only have 10% of members take part in live-fire drills.
A source in the North Korean military told Daily NK on Monday that the General Staff Department of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) has begun reviewing unit performance for the winter exercises during a scheduled two-week assessment period.
The General Staff Department’s combat training bureau distributed the assessment rubric to the entire army on Mar. 12.
One unusual aspect of this year’s assessment is that only 10% of unit members are supposed to take part in daytime and nighttime live-fire drills for the marksmanship section of the assessment, instead of the 100% participation ordered in previous years.
As a result, the source said, KPA units stationed in Pyongyang and units attached to the III Corps command in Nampo have picked out their finest marksmen to take part in the live-fire drills.
The source added that unit armories were ordered to determine the exact number of soldiers who would be taking part in the live-fire drills and to issue three bullets for each participant.
“This is the first time they’ve ever sent us an assessment rubric for the winter exercises in which only 10% of soldiers in each unit go out for live-fire drills. So many soldiers have been mobilized for construction projects in line with the ‘20×10 regional development policy’ that only a skeleton crew of combat soldiers are left with the units,” the source said.
Construction work pulls most soldiers out of drills
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un unveiled the 20×10 regional development policy in a policy speech at the 10th Plenary Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly on Jan. 15. The policy’s goal is to build modern factories in 20 counties every year so as to bring the public’s standard of living to the next level over the next 10 years.
During the 19th Extended Meeting of the Eighth Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) from Jan. 23-24, Kim Jong Un detailed how the regional development policy would be implemented. In addition, the North Korean leader personally delivered to the chief of the General Staff an order, signed in his capacity as chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, to mobilize KPA units for the struggle to implement the decision of the expanded meeting to carry out an “industrial revolution in the provinces.”
As a result, the KPA has been fully mobilized to build factories in the provinces, leaving only a small number of selected unit members to participate in the live-fire skill-assessment exercises in this year’s winter drills, the source explained.
These developments tend to be seen in a positive light within the military, the source said.
“A competition between the best marksmen in each unit will allow the army to gauge top shooting ability rather than average shooting ability, which some people are praising as a new approach to training sharpshooters who are adept at real warfare and making the drills more efficient,” the source said.
According to the source, the General Staff Department explained that reducing execution time in accordance with the combat training orders in various training areas—including not only live-fire but also upland marching, river fording, maneuvers, tactics, wired and wireless communication, status log keeping, and chemical warfare countermeasures—will be an important factor in the assessment, the source said.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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