Following the declaration of the end of its COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has begun moving to reinforce the Storm Corps, a special forces unit stationed along the China-North Korea border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic in a recent meeting to review the nation’s emergency quarantine efforts. However, the move to increase personnel on the border suggests that the authorities want to strengthen efforts to prevent smuggling and defections.
According to a Daily NK source in North Korea last Thursday, North Korean military authorities are considering plans to deploy more Storm Corps personnel along the border.
The border patrol’s 25th Brigade, which is stationed in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, has responded by searching for stretches of the border that require additional manpower.
In short, once the 25th Brigade finds out which stretches of the border are more likely to experience smuggling and defections, it will inform Storm Corps headquarters, which will then deploy more men to those areas.
The source said the government “seems extremely worried” about people crossing the border following the recent end-of-coronavirus declaration.
“With the additional deployment of Storm Corps soldiers to the border region, the authorities have once again demonstrated that they have no intention to loosen the border closure,” he said.
The 25th Brigade believes Taehongdan County, Samjiyon County, Pochon County, Kimjongsuk County and Kimhyongjik County in Yanggang Province experience the most smuggling and defections, the source added.
In fact, on Aug. 13, the 25th Brigade ordered its regiments and battalions to bolster their controls and patrols along the border, while announcing that additional Storm Corps soldiers would be deployed.
Storm Corps soldiers have been mobilized to shutdown the border since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and have since been jointly monitoring the frontier with border patrol troops. The additional Storm Corps troops look set to be tasked with several missions, including patrolling roads and entry points on the border.
In fact, the border patrol’s leadership and the headquarters of the Storm Corps recently concluded discussions around additional deployment of personnel, the source said.
“The additional Storm Corps troops may arrive on site this week at the earliest or early next week at the latest,” he said.
“People were hoping for the end of COVID-19 border blockade so they could resume smuggling,” he continued, adding, “People in the border region are unhappy because the government doesn’t intend to lift the border blockade. Instead, its moving to deploy more soldiers, and rough-and-ready Storm Troops at that.”
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