The 25th Border Guard Brigade, which is stationed in Yanggang Province, has been replacing its personnel every three to six months, Daily NK has learned.
Towards the end of August, the 25th Border Guard Brigade replaced some of its divisions, a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Sept. 19. The replacements are carried out on the orders of the Party Central Military Commission.
In the event of a serious incident, military units may arbitrarily replace battalions or company units; in ordinary times, however, platoons and squad units are replaced every three to six months.
The targets of these three-month rotations are trouble-making soldiers and battalions stationed next to villages. While the goal of six-month rotations depends on the particular circumstances, the decision to replace a unit generally seems to be in response to soldiers developing a close relationship with local villages.
Soldiers responsible for guarding the border near Samjiyon are far removed from nearby villages and have relatively little contact with locals. As such, these platoons and squads are replaced about once every six months.
By contrast, in regions like Hyesan where battalions have frequent and extensive interaction with local residents, problematic battalions are being sent off to Samjiyon, the source explained.
Smuggling and defection incidents happen frequently in regions with villages not far from the border, such as Hyesan and Hwajon-li (Pochon County). The battalions in charge of guarding these border regions are replaced every three months.
Outside of these regular rotations, a smuggling incident can lead to an entire battalion being replaced, while a defection incident can trigger a change of post for an entire platoon or company. In this way, the size and scale of a station change depends on the seriousness of the incident, the source said.
The source also reported that the Yanggang Province border guard platoons and squads in Hyesan, Kim Jongsuk County, Pochon County, and Taehongdan County were replaced at the end of last month.
When soldiers go into local civilian villages, they expose sensitive military information such as their on-duty hours, shift rotation times, and where they conduct stakeouts. In order to thoroughly prevent locals from using this leaked information to mount smuggling and defection attempts, the authorities are using frequent troop rotations to stymie any further deepening of civilian-military relations.
“While the military knows that soldiers need to spend a while in one place in order to get a strong grasp of the terrain and perform their duties well, changing stations every three to six months is meant to block military-civilian exchange and prevent incidents,” the source said.
“If soldiers live in the same place for a long time, they can grow close to residents and it’s easy enough to earn a little food to eat. But with these troop rotations happening so quickly that there’s no time to get to know locals, soldiers have no way to fill their stomachs and discontent among their ranks is growing,” he continued.
The source also acknowledged, “This isn’t just in Yanggang province. These same station changes are being implemented among border guards in places like Chagang Province and North Pyongan Province as well.”
Translated by Rose Adams.
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