North Korea’s General Staff Department recently issued an order to the entire Korean People’s Army (KPA) designating May and June as general mobilization periods, Daily NK has learned.
“A written order by the general administrative office of the operations bureau of the General Staff Department was issued to unit staff departments across the KPA on May 5,” a Daily NK reporting partner in the North Korean military said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The order designated May and June as a period of general mobilization of KPA units for base construction, unit support projects and socialist economic construction.”
This suggests that the authorities intend to intensively deploy the KPA across society ahead of the military’s summer training, which begins on July 1.
“In issuing the order, the General Staff Department stressed that the May and June general mobilization period must be one where the KPA, as the main force of the revolution, handles both the security of the fatherland and socialist construction,” the reporting partner said.
The General Staff Department’s order called for barracks construction and other related construction work, including the building of additional shower facilities in each unit and fixing up the interiors and exteriors of old buildings. The order also instructed military units to build bridges ahead of the rainy season, along with training grounds to ensure a successful summer training period.
The order also told military units to increase food cultivation to meet their own needs, along with inter-unit competition in vegetable and soybean production. It further ordered a general mobilization of soldiers in May for planting rice paddies nearby military bases.
The General Staff Department’s order also spelled out in detail the construction tasks for each military unit, calling for soldiers to be used in rural housing construction, farm support, restoring forests and the building of ranches.
The order made separate mention of providing KPA support to key North Korean construction projects like the Kangdong Greenhouse Farm and the building of residential housing in Pyongyang, as well as to the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, a project that was temporary put on hold due to the pandemic.
“In the order, the General Staff Department said barracks construction and the basic organizational framework of unit support projects must be completed before the start of summer training, and support units might not be tasked with mandatory participation in the summer training depending on how well they complete economic construction tasks,” the reporting partner said.
“The General Staff Department stressed in particular that during the mobilization period, military units must thoroughly crack down on phenomena that damage relations between the military and civilians as soldiers come into contact with the public.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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