{"id":43170,"date":"2019-12-17T16:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=43170"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:57:27","slug":"north-korea-bolsters-combat-readiness-elite-military-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-bolsters-combat-readiness-elite-military-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea bolsters combat readiness of elite military unit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Dec. 7, a special education session was reportedly provided to the \u201cStorm Corps,\u201d an elite military unit tasked with the infiltration of South Korea as well as sabotage operations during warfare. According to sources, the session contained anti-American propaganda claiming \u201cUS imperialists\u201d were trying to eliminate North Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Monday, North Korean military sources informed Daily NK about a solemn education session held on Saturday at the Storm Corps command facilities in Tokchon, South Pyongan Province. The event is said to have been supervised by the General Political Bureau\u2019s Propaganda and Agitation Department. It might have been an attempt to instill a \u201cwar-time atmosphere\u201d in the elite military unit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A source told Daily NK the session was based on U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s recent threats to order military strikes against North Korea. \u201cThe speaker condemned [the US] for \u2018brazenly discussing regime change and precision strikes\u2019, as well as for its \u2018unacceptable and frenzied efforts to eliminate the leadership\u2019\u201d\u2019 he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe speaker did not forget to mention that \u2018we need to actively resist the US imperialists murderous and villainous special forces, which have crept into the southern part of the Republic [South Korea],\u2019\u201d the source recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This aligns with the official response of Pak Jong Chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People&#8217;s Army (KPA), to Trump\u2019s comments. He had warned that North Korea would retaliate against any US attack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PREPARING FOR THE WORST?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korea\u2019s Storm Corps unit was founded for the purpose of establishing a \u201csecond front\u201d across the Korean Peninsula in case of a war. The elite military unit is also tasked with political subversion operations such as espionage and military sabotage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The unit reportedly consists of approximately 20,000 members. Its soldiers are said to run an offensive program specifically designed for warfare. To prepare for their special operations, the unit\u2019s soldiers receive intensive training in both educative and combative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c[North Korea] is apparently intensifying class-conscious and anti-American education in the Storm Corps, which is known to conduct the most brutal special training to prepare for their missions,\u201d a source said. \u201cBecause the North Korean-American talks are not progressing and disparaging comments were made about Kim Jong Un,\u201d he said, the country\u2019s leaders have \u201cset out to ramp up education efforts in special ops units.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_42011\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42011\" style=\"width: 696px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-42011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Kim and Trump\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-1068x712.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/\uae40\uc815\uc740_\ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504_8.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-42011\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Panmunjom on June 30, 2019. The two leaders have not met face-to-face since. \/ Image: Rodong Sinmun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, the elite military unit&#8217;s combat training has allegedly gotten more intense compared to last year: \u201cSoldiers had to endure a 40 kilometer march in full gear immediately after a battalion\u2019s routine inspection of emergency wartime supplies,\u201d the source told Daily NK. \u201cHigh-level officials closely monitored whether all soldiers could complete the exercise in time and without any dropouts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBoth the command and the entire battalion had to do the march this time whereas previously, fewer personnel had to participate in exercises,\u201d the source added. The atmosphere during the exercise, he said, was thus \u201coverflowing with tension.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*Translated by Violet Kim and edited by Laura Geigenberger<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Dec. 7, a special education session was reportedly provided to the \u201cStorm Corps,\u201d an elite military unit tasked with the infiltration of South Korea as well as sabotage operations during warfare. According to sources, the session contained anti-American propaganda claiming \u201cUS imperialists\u201d were trying to eliminate North Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un.\u00a0 On Monday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":43171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,646],"tags":[691,3238],"class_list":["post-43170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-military","tag-military","tag-north-korea-foreign-policy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. 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