Amid North Korea’s declaration of a
‘quasi-state of war’ last month during heightened tensions on the Korean
Peninsula, Pyongyang deployed 20 Landing Craft Air Cushions [LCACs] near the border with South Korea. However, testimony has emerged from those close to the issue that the overwhelming noise of the engines and the vulnerability of the outdated rubber cushions indicate that employing them in an actual military operation would prove
difficult and largely ineffective.
“When a sudden order to initiate a
quasi-state of war came down, the atmosphere on the frontline [inter-Korean
border] became quite tense,” a military source from South Pyongan Province
reported to Daily NK on September 17th. “When high-level talks between the
North and South occurred and the tensions began to lessen just in time, the
soldiers breathed a collective sigh of relief.”
An additional source in North Pyongan
Province corroborated this news.
“It is not just that the North Korean
servicemen are well aware of their own [lack of] capabilities, it is also because
they know something of the military strength of the combined American and South
Korean forces,” the source explained, adding that the navy personnel aboard the
20 LCACsthat were deployed off the west coast on August 23rd referred to themselves
privately as “the punching bag forces.”
The engine noise of the landing cushions was so loud it could be heard from roughly 4 km away, he added, noting, “The noise emitted by these LCACs engines,
which must exert a lot of power, is extremely distinctive. These engines used are
known as “Ra-15”, and are a remodeled version of the M400 engines that were
used by the former Soviet Union’s fleet. The remodeled engines, well-known for the deafening sound they emit, are produced in
the munitions factory in Rason and installed on North Korea’s high-speed fleet.”
However, the source said that the rubber can be easily punctured by multiple bullets and/or shrapnel, likening such a scenario to one wherein “a car collapses from a punctured tire.”
“When these North Korean LCACs are struck by a few machine gun
bullets, they deflate immediately–right where they are,” he explained.
As far as the reactions of the servicemen , our source told us, “The authorities may have deployed LCACS and submarines
off the west coast but everyone said it was an act of sheer bravado with zero
chance of success. Naval personnel aboard the deployed LCACs sarcastically remarked, ‘This is going to make us cannon fodder.'”
Those aboard the submarines expressed just as much anxiety as those on the LCACs, according to the source, who said they “constantly wonder exactly how long these outdated vessels will manage to stay
afloat.” They also fear being trapped like “rats in a hole” in the nets of the
myriad fishing nurseries maintained by South Korean fisherman.
Incidentally, this fear is not entirely
unfounded. South Korea routinely utilized high seas driftnets before
banning them in 2003; in 1998, prior to the law change, a North Korean
submarine was caught in one of the South’s driftnets.
Much of what provides North Korean soldiers
with a basis for comparison regarding their inferior military strength
originates in a required course for all conscripts titled, “Enemy Forces,”
wherein young soldiers are exposed to the military capabilities of their
brethren below the border and of their American allies.
“Once soldiers participate in this course,
they begin to compare their own weapons to those of the South Korean and
American forces, and immediately realize what a huge discrepancy they are up
against,” the source concluded.
*The content of this article was broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.
