North Korea: NATIONAL SECURITY

Armed Forces Overview: The armed forces, known collectively as the Korean People’s Army (KPA), totaled about 1.2 million in 2005. The KPA is the fourth largest military force in the world. Components are the army (approximately 950,000 including 88,000 special operations troops), navy (46,000), and air force (86,000). There also are paramilitary security troops, including border guards and public safety personnel, who number around 189,000. The armed forces are under the direction and control of Kim Jong Il, who is supreme commander of the KPA with the title of grand marshal, general secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), and chairman of the state National Defense Commission. The KWP Military Affairs Committee and the National Defense Commission hold coordinated authority over the armed forces. North Korea is a heavily militarized state with, after China, the United States, and India, the fourth largest population under arms. The active military structure is supported by a 4.7 million-strong reserve component, of which 600,000 army and 65,000 navy personnel are assigned to training units, and approximately 3.5 million are members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, Red Guard Youth, and college training units. An estimated 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002 went for defense expenditures.

Foreign Military Relations: North Korea has military advisers in 12 African nations.

External Threat: The major threat perceived by North Korea is from the United States, South Korea, and Japan. Despite its periodic assurances to the contrary, North Korea continues to take actions to further develop its nuclear weapons program as a counter to foreign nuclear weapons dominance. North Korea has refused to dismantle its nuclear weapons program despite repeated calls to do so from the United States, South Korea, Japan, and other nations and international organizations. In February 2005, North Korea confirmed that it had manufactured nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States.

Defense Budget: The defense budget for fiscal year 2002 was estimated at US$3.2 billion. However, foreign experts believe that an estimated $4.7 billion (or even as high as US$5.2 billion)—approximately 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or US$214 per capita—actually went for defense expenditures that year.

Major Military Units: The army has 20 corps: 1 armored, 4 mechanized, 12 infantry, 2 artillery, and 1 capital defense corps. Among these 20 corps are 27 infantry divisions, 15 armored brigades, 9 multiple rocket launcher brigades, 14 infantry brigades, and 21 artillery brigades. The total army strength in 2003 was 950,000 troops. These included 88,000 organized into the Special Purpose Forces Command, which had 10 sniper brigades, 12 light infantry brigades, 17 reconnaissance brigades, 1 airborne battalion, and 8 battalions organized as the Bureau of Reconnaissance Special Forces. This is said to be the largest special operations force in the world. There were 40 infantry divisions in reserve status. The navy, primarily a coastal defense force, is headquartered in P’y4ngyang and has a strength of 46,000. It has two fleets, the East Sea Fleet, headquartered at T’oejo-dong, and the West or Sea Fleet, headquartered at Namp’o. The East Sea Fleet has nine naval bases, and the West Sea Fleet has 10 naval bases. The air force had a strength of 86,000 with 4 air divisions organized into 33 air regiments plus 3 independent air battalions. Three of the divisions are responsible for north, east, and south defense sectors; a fourth—a training division—is responsible for the northeast sector. The air force has 11 airbases located at strategic points—many aimed at lightning strikes against key South Korean targets—mostly in southern North Korea, with some in rear areas closer to the border with China. In 2005 some 70 percent of North Korea’s armed forces were deployed in offensive positions between P’y4ngyang and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). There has been an incremental increase in this deployment, from 40 percent in 1981 to 65 percent in 1998.

Major Military Equipment: The army’s major military equipment includes 3,500 main battle tanks, 560 light tanks, 2,500 armored personnel carriers, 3,500 pieces of towed artillery, 4,400 pieces of self-propelled artillery, 2,500 multiple rocket launchers, 7,500 mortars, 24 surface-to-surface rockets and missiles, antitank guided weapons, 1,700 recoilless launchers, and 11,000 air defense guns. The navy has 92 submarines (the largest fleet in the world), 3 frigates, 6 corvettes, 43 missile craft, 158 large patrol craft, 103 fast torpedo craft, more than 334 patrol force craft, 10 amphibious ships, 2 coastal defense missile batteries, 130 hovercraft, 23 minesweepers, 1 depot ship, 8 midget ships, and 4 survey vessels. The air force has 80 bombers, 541 fighters and ground attack fighters, an estimated 316 transports, 588 transport helicopters (supported by 24 armed helicopters), 228 training aircraft, at least 1 unmanned air vehicle, and a large inventory of air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles. North Korea is believed to have one or two nuclear weapons and to have harvested enough plutonium for upward of nine weapons.

Military Service: Conscription ages are 20 to 25, with 5- to 8-year terms of service in the army, 5- to 10-year terms in the navy, and 3- to 4-year terms in the air force, all followed by part-time compulsory service in the Worker-Peasant Red Guards until age 60. Both men and women serve in the armed forces.

Paramilitary Forces: The Ministry of Public Security has an estimated 189,000 People’s Security Force troops, including border guards and public safety personnel. Approximately 3.5 million North Koreans also are members of the Red Guard Youth (ages 14 to 17) and Worker-Peasant Red Guards (ages 40 to 60). These militia-type forces are organized at the provincial, town, and village levels into brigades, battalions, companies, and platoons. Some militia units have small arms and mortars; others have no weapons. Together with college training units, Worker-Peasant Red Guards and Red Guard Youth make up the majority of the 4.7 million reserve forces of North Korea.

Foreign Military Forces: None.

Police and Internal Security: Internal security and maintenance of law and order are controlled by the paramilitary People’s Security Force, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Public Security. The Ministry of Public Security is responsible for internal security, social control, and basic police duties, including border control, employing some 189,000 security personnel in 2002. There are public security bureaus in each province, county, city, and some city substations; each village has a police force. The rest of the internal security apparatus includes the State Security Department, the National Security Agency, the National Security Police, and the Korean Workers’s Party (KWP). The entire conventional and secret police apparatus is tightly controlled by the KWP. Movement by citizens is strictly controlled.

Terrorism: No international terrorist attacks have been attributed to North Korea since 1987, when it conducted the mid-flight bombing of a Korean Air (KAL) airliner, killing all 115 persons aboard. Despite North Korean statements that it opposed terrorism and any assistance to it, political sanctuary was granted to members of the Japanese Red Army Faction hijackers of a Japanese Airlines (JAL) flight to North Korea in 1970. Because of these and other North Korean activities, North Korea has been on the United States list of countries supporting international terrorism since 1988. Although the United States has had many interventions to remove North Korea from the list, North Korea is viewed as uncooperative in agreeing to stop its missile threats and therefore has remained on the terrorism list. However, North Korea is indifferent to United States decisions and outlook.

Human Rights: According to the U.S. Department of State’s human rights report for 2004, citizens are denied all types of human rights including: respect for the integrity of the person, civil liberties, political rights, social status, and workers rights. Civilians are subject to pervasive programming and close surveillance. Political prisoners, opponents of the regime, repatriated defectors, and military officers suspected of espionage or plotting against Kim Jong Il have been executed, and others have been sentenced to death for ill-defined “crimes” against the state. Others, including foreigners, have disappeared into the harsh system of prison camps, where deprivation, torture, and other inhumane treatment are routine. Defectors have reported human experimentation using chemical and biological agents and lethal gases. Some 1,894 North Koreas arrived in South Korea during 2004, having escaped primarily through China. There also were widespread reports of trafficking of women and young girls into China, where they were forced to become wives or concubines.

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