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The operational department of the North Korean Workers Party is a special force of highly-trained secret agents. Consisting of some 2,000 highly trained individuals, it was established for the purpose of undermining the enemy's leadership in time of war.
Reportedly only one in 1,000 special force cadres is screened to join the department.
Combatants needed for sea infiltration, in particular, are said to undergo training from the age of 12. "Only those who have crossed numerous thresholds of death can be recruited as members of the special force," claims Ahn Myong-jin, a North Korean refugee in the South who served in the department.
Combatants are equipped with top-notch artillery and other special weapons ordinary special force members are not authorized to handle. Headquartered near Pyongyang's government building no. 3, where agencies tasked with missions involving South Korea are clustered, the operational department operates six liaison offices across the North and hiding places in major locations like Pyongyang, Chongjin, Wonsan and Kaesong.
The department's secret bases of operation are apparently the only places in the North that leader Kim Jong-il visits unaccompanied by bodyguards and without prior notice -- proof of extraordinary trust. Kim, who commands a 240,000-strong force of security including his bodyguards, has such faith in the department because it is skilled enough to neutralize even a corps command in about a minute.
The special force second to the operational department is the intelligence bureau of People's Armed Forces. Tasked with infiltration into the South, it is manned by elite martial artists and also has top-notch combat equipment. Adding other units like the Marine ground combat unit, comparable to South Korea's Marine Corps, and Air Force ground combat unit, the People's Army special forces have some 200,000 members.
But they are said to be in disarray due to the economic crisis. Ordinary North Korean military units now find it difficult to supply the troops with two meals a day. Shoes and uniform supplies have been at best haphazard for a year. Special force members used to be guaranteed decent jobs upon discharge, but no longer, with the result that morale is said to be at a low ebb. This has apparently given rise to organized thefts and robberies.
The emergence of a new slogan -- "The military helps the people" -- in the New Year's message this year seems to reflect that reality, evidence supporting claims that the military is becoming a problem for the North.
"The excessive North Korean special forces may transform themselves from a vanguard defending the system into a force endangering it," speculates a North Korean refugee. "If they become disaffected, the Kim Jong-il regime could face an uncontrollable crisis."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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