Yanggang Province’s 25th Border Guard Brigade recently conducted rare nighttime live-fire exercises, Daily NK has learned.
The exercises appear to be part of the North Korean government’s efforts to elevate a sense of tension in the China-North Korea border region amid recent military provocations, including ballistic missile launches.
According to a Daily NK source in Yanggang Province on Thursday, the 25th Border Guard Brigade carried out the live-fire exercises over three days, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14.
Given that the border guard unit’s primary duty is to guard the border, the troops continued to patrol the frontier during the day, carrying out the firing exercises mostly at night.
With the exception of frontline units and special forces units, military units usually conduct live-fire drills only in the final stages of their winter and summer exercises.
Given that, locals were left wondering why the live-fire drills were conducted at night, particularly since they were held outside of the military’s regular period of drills.
In fact, people who have lived decades along the border said the international situation must be really tense “if the border guard is holding nighttime live-fire exercises.”
COMPLAINTS AMONG THE RANKS
Border patrol troops who monitor the border day and night complained of significant fatigue and dissatisfaction from the nighttime drills, Daily NK’s source said.
The negative attitudes of the soldiers were inevitable given that they had to dive straight into shooting drills after completing their patrols, he explained.
In fact, for three days, the soldiers of the 25th Border Guard Brigade’s subordinate units were reportedly dragged to the firing range for shooting drills immediately after completing their daytime patrols.
It takes about an hour and a half to walk to the firing range, so when soldiers returned after completing their shooting drills, they had to restart their monitoring of the border without any sleep.
“I think this is the first time I’ve heard of the border guard carrying out nighttime shooting exercises like this,” said the source. “Upon hearing about the drills, people have been nervous, worrying that they could get shot if they aren’t careful around the border.”
The source also said that the 25th Border Guard Brigade rotated out various battalions and companies for the nighttime shooting drills to ensure no disruptions in the unit’s monitoring of the border.
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