North Korean sources have refuted reports from a Japanese broadcaster that the Kim Jong Eun regime, with the confidence borne of becoming a confirmed nuclear power, has decided to reduce the scale of the Chosun People’s Army by 300,000 and dispatch the manpower into the civilian economy. When asked about the theory, one source suggested it might be a case of brief spells of military support for construction and production projects being mistaken for a formal reduction in the armed forces.
At the start of this month, Japanese TV broadcaster Asahi reported cited a source in the North Korean military as saying that Chosun People’s Army Supreme Command had ordered military manpower to be reduced by 25%: 300,000 out of 1.19 million. 250,000 were to be ordinary soldiers, the report said, and another 50,000 officers. The move was to be completed by the end of August.
However, an inside North Korean source said that he has not heard anything about a large-scale reduction of the armed forces. Therefore, the story seems doubtful, since “in order to reduce the total by 300,000, rear forces would have to be reduced severely, and those bases would be like beehives poked with a stick. But that is not the case.”
In particular, the source said that conducting such a large-scale armed forces reduction without any rumor or commotion in just a couple of months would be impossible. A military source noted, “Ordinary soldiers might complain about it, but officers would certainly not accept being sent to factories or farms. If people were forced into it, there’d be a huge commotion.”
A North Korean defector with extensive army experience agreed, adding, “Nobody has any information at all about any large-scale reduction in military manpower. If are directive were to be issued by the leader for economic construction, it would be proclaimed in the media on the orders of the Supreme Commander.”
According to the defector, at the time of the “Panmunjom Axe Murder Incident” of 1976 the Korean Peninsula was in a state of high tension, yet Kim Il Sung opted to send 100,000 People’s Army soldiers into the economic sector, a decision that bewildered many officers but was excellent for Kim’s propaganda image.
As such, if Kim Jong Eun had reduced military personnel rapidly so soon after the recent increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula then the action would have been instrumentalized to elevate his public image.
