The North Korean army’s 11th Corps — the so-called “Storm Corps” — is repairing a training ground for simulating raids on major South Korean facilities and installations, Daily NK has learned.
North Korea is reportedly rebuilding mockups of major strategic facilities in the greater Seoul area, including the office of the South Korean president in Seoul’s Yongsan district, in accordance with recently collected intelligence.
According to multiple Daily NK sources inside North Korea, North Korea’s General Staff Department (GSD) issued an order to the Storm Corps’s headquarters in Tokchon, South Pyongan Province, in early January calling on them to restore training mockups of major South Korean facilities.
The Storm Corps’ engineering battalion is now carrying out the construction.
Tasked with infiltrating behind enemy lines and assassinations, the Storm Corps has mockups of major South Korean facilities on their bases.
The Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) and other special force units aimed at the South also use the facilities in question when they train to destroy South Korean installations.
North Korea’s state-run media reported in 2016 that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed a simulated raid by the special operation battalion of Unit 525 of the 11th Corps.
Media photos and video from the time showed armed North Korea combatants raiding a building that resembled the South Korean presidential mansion Cheong Wa Dae.
The KCNA reported at the time that the combat personnel demonstrated through the drill the “courage and fighting will of the heroic KPA to destroy the enemy, to ultimately extend the sea of fire of Yonpyeong-do to Cheong Wa Dae and forever force the South Korean puppets into the depths of destruction.”
NEW INTELLIGENCE LEADS TO REPAIRS
The problem is that inside the North Korean military, people are reportedly saying the GSD ordered the repairs to the training ground to reflect intelligence obtained by drone infiltrations of South Korea.
A source in the North Korean military said the UAVs that infiltrated South Korea on Dec. 26 were tasked with gathering intelligence on major South Korean facilities that changed after the South Korean presidential office moved to Yongsan, and that at least one of the drones returned after taking photos of the presidential office and major military installations from the airspace above Yongsan.
South Korean military authorities initially denied that the North Korean UAVs that infiltrated Seoul entered the airspace near the presidential office.
However, they later admitted that one of the drones entered the P-73 no-fly zone over central Seoul, based on recent detailed analysis.
According to the military on Jan. 5, South Korea’s top brass — including defense minister Lee Jong-sup and joint chiefs of staff chairperson Kim Seung-kyum — reported to President Yoon Suk-yeol on Jan. 4 that a North Korean UAV penetrated P-73.
P-73 covers a radius of 3.7 kilometers centered on the presidential office and defense ministry headquarters in Yongsan.
A military official reportedly said the drone just skirted P-73, remaining far from Yongsan or the presidential office, but ultimately, the military cannot deny that a North Korean UAV penetrated a zone established to protect the president.
Meanwhile, Daily NK sources inside the North Korean military still claim that 12 UAVs infiltrated South Korea on Dec. 26, not five.
This is because the claim was reflected in the North Korean military’s “comprehensive evaluation materials for combat politics training” based on the results of December’s winter training.
Daily NK reported on Dec. 27 — the day after the UAV intrusion — that the North Korean military wrote a training report that claimed 12 drones infiltrated the South, not five, and that they were “undetected by the enemy.”
A high-ranking source in the North Korean military said the comprehensive evaluation materials “wouldn’t lie” because the unit and headquarters that actually took part in the UAV operation would learn what went into the report.
“It’s correct that a total of 12 UAVs were sortied,” he said.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
