Recently, I watched a very interesting video about the training regime of the soldiers of the KPA (Korean People's Army). I would now share with everyone whatever I have seen and analyzed in that piece of media as well as a background information about the Korean People's Army.
Korean People's Army is the military body of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (most commonly known as North Korea). It is in fact the fourth largest army in this whole world and it is absolutely the backbone of the virtually isolated country in this world. It has about +- 1000000 active personnel with +- 4000000 reserve troops. They are all well-trained and fully loyal to North Korea and thus to their Supreme Commander, Kim Jong-il. However, one huge turn-off of the KPA is the fact that most of their equipments are outdated Soviet models of the 1960s. Despite this, the soliders of the KPA compensate for this with their extremely good skills to make do with the equipments available and with their numbers. (Reminiscence to the Chinese, huh?)
Just like the Red Army of the USSR and the Chinese Army, the KPA's best unit is its land unit. It is their strength and only strength. On the other hand, their least best unit is either the navy or the air force.
Now, I would like to start with the main point and I am going to describe the training regime of the KPA based on the video. The training of the KPA is extremely tough for any standards. They do extreme trainings from martial arts (basically Tae Kwon Do) to trampling on broken bottles. In the video, it is shown that the soldiers are given intensive training on martial arts. They are also appear to be very good in the martial arts. They are able to break bricks, large numbers of them. Sometimes, they even break 11 bricks at any one time. For this exercise, it can be seen that they are able to break the bricks with any parts of their body. Head, palm, legs. The female soldiers are also not spared in this training, as could be seen in the video that the female soldiers are breaking bricks as well. Secondly, the soldiers are also trained how to get hit. They are being hit by heavy logs and even very sharp blade. The most interesting part is the part where the soldiers are being slashed by the blade. In this exercise, the soldier lies down while the other slash him several times with the blade. Interestingly, the soldier that's been slashed by the sword is not hurt. There's not even a single scratch. They are really well trained. Next, they are also training by trampling on broken glass. To add to this, one training consists of some soldiers lying down on the pieces of glass while other group of soldiers are trampling on their bodies. The soldiers who are lying down must do two sets of this training. One where they are lying on their backs to the glass and the other one where their chests to the glass. As with the sword exercise, these soldiers do not even get a single scratch from this hardcore training. Next, a less hardcore one. They are also trained on how to deal with multiple enemies attacking them. One soldier are able to handle as many as 10 enemies by himself in a swift move.
Another interesting training is the evasive training. This is where the soldiers are being trained to evade knives being thrown at them. Yes, they are all real knives being thrown at the soldiers. Any one small mistake, and one poor soldier will be dead. However, this is not the case for the KPA soldiers. They are all able to dodge those knives properly without any mistakes. There are several trainings similar as this one. One other would be the training where the soldiers have to jump over woods that are burning in fire. In this one, one small mistake will hurt them. But as usual, the soldiers are able to jump over the burning wooden structures properly. One last similar training would be the one where they have to jump over a passing car. One wrong timing and they are dead.
The soldiers are also well-trained in shooting. They are able to shoot targets which are very far from them 9around 100-200 meters) very accurately using old model Soviet guns such as the AK-47.
Those are basically the physical training. The KPA soldiers are also receiving battle trainings. Trainings where the equipments (tanks, planes, turrets, missiles, artilleries etc.) are being used in a real time training. It could be seen in the video that their mighty tanks and turrets are trained to destroy targets being set in the mountains far away from them.
I would like to apologize for the poor structure of this article and I may miss some other form of trainings as I am writing this based on what I remember from the video I watched.
If you are interested, you can find the actual video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQzokgGS7g
Again, I have to apologize as I do not embed the video in this posting. I am still finding the way to do that.
2 comments:
Okay, so a few issues to cover:
1. First, the article mentions the KPA's number in which it is "Reminiscence to the Chinese," however, North Korea is such a small nation and thus the population it wields will only be a tiny fraction of that of China's. China's ability to wield a large army is dependent on it's large non-combatant population, as it allows quick replenishing of losses. How can the KPA mantain those large numbers without the civilian population of China?
2. Secong, their training although interesting and eye boggling, from its intensity and danger, is unecessary. Training meant as in it broken glass excersices and evasive knife training. What is the purpose of making each soldier's skin so impenetrable by glass or knife strikes, or to train soldiers in evasive knife training? This might be useful for a special ops operatives, however for the normal soldier, it is unlikely that and enemy soldier would throw a knife at them as guns are readily available.
3. Last, I question the validity of the source. How trustworthy is this video from Youtube?
But overall it is an interesting article
1.) Somehow, the North Korean birthrate seems to be high enough to maintain the large number of army (Around 5000000 personnels altogether).
2.) History is repeating itself. Remember China? The soldiers were immune to blades and swords. However, they were not immune to bullets. When the British came with guns, they thought they wont get hurt. However, the British shot the f*** out of them.
3.) I am unable to comment on this source. However, I believe it is not a fake video made by the USA. They won't glorify the KPA, right? Logical
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