After holding an end-of-year plenary meeting, North Korean authorities issued their first military instructions to the front-line corps command. It is understood that the order includes information on reinforcing defense facilities in areas near the Military Demarcation Line between North and South Korea.
On the 2nd, Daily NK, a North Korean military source, said, “On the 31st of last month, at 8 a.m., a telegraphic order from the General Staff was sent to the 1st Corps command center,” adding, “Strengthening troop political projects, modernizing military power, reinforcing southern border defense facilities, and mobile and field warfare. “This includes expanding training, completing equipment inspections, and supporting local construction,” he said.
In the order, the General Staff defined the role of the 1st Corps as “the most elite unit that protects the outpost, the southern border of the country,” and emphasized that “political and ideological unity of the entire corps must be the top priority.”
The source explains that this directive is based on the tone of the 11th plenary session of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, and its core goals are strengthening the ideological solidarity of the People’s Army and modernizing military power.
In addition, the North Korean Army’s General Staff should focus on providing learning and political education to the 1st Corps Staff Department on the programmatic tasks instructed to the People’s Army at the 11th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Workers’ Party, thereby instilling loyalty and establishing military discipline. It was also instructed to do so.
This is the first order of the new year in 2025 and is interpreted as a measure aimed at instilling loyalty and strengthening the combat power of the North Korean military in accordance with the tone of the Labor Party plenary meeting at the end of 2024.
In fact, Chairman Kim Jong-un of the State Affairs Commission emphasized at this plenary meeting, “We will thoroughly prepare the People’s Army as a revolutionary party army that is infinitely faithful to the party’s leadership and as an ideologically and technologically powerful army.”
Chairman Kim then said, “In line with the demands and aspects of modern warfare and in response to the enemy’s changing war plans and methods, we will deepen our research on our style of warfare, continue to accelerate the realization of informatization and modernization of operational command, and develop scientific training formats and methods.” He ordered, “Continuously improve the people’s army’s war-fighting capabilities by continuously researching and applying.”
In accordance with this order from the General Staff, units under the 1st Corps plan to conduct practical training starting from the new year.
The source said, “As a unit standing on the first line of trenches on the southern border (near the military demarcation line between North and South Korea), the 1st Corps received orders to expand unit mobility training and field training in the second week of this month to maintain combat power and improve military power.” “Each division was ordered to complete the inspection of the weapons (equipment) of the mechanized unit and mobile artillery unit, which are the core forces of the unit, by the first week of January,” he said.
In addition, the General Staff included as an important part of the order issued to the 1st Corps the direction to strengthen defense facilities in the border area between North and South Korea in Gangwon-do.
The source added, “Through this order, the 1st Corps was ordered to further strengthen its thorough readiness posture to crush any invasion attempt by the puppet Korea,” adding, “To this end, fortification work such as reinforcing barbed wire and expanding positions and observation posts was specifically ordered.” .
Meanwhile, the General Staff ordered the 1st Corps command to cooperate with the Gangwon-do Military Commission to expand the supply of military supplies this month and to actively mobilize a separate engineer technical battalion in addition to the troops deployed for training for provincial construction.
This is interpreted as a reflection of the policy stance that the military will contribute to local development and stabilization of people’s livelihoods and actively support the authorities’ local economic construction line.
The source said, “Following the first General Staff order to implement the decision of the party plenary meeting at the end of the year, the 1st Corps political department and the General Staff department strengthened political and ideological unity among subordinate units and strengthened the defense posture on the southern frontier border through combat training more than ever before. “We have ordered it to be strengthened,” he said.
Meanwhile, the source said, “The 1st Corps, which received orders for its first military and political activities after the plenary meeting, made political and ideological unity and strengthening the southern border defense posture its top priority in accordance with the instructions of the General Staff, and began operations to increase the intensity of training from the beginning of the new year. “A meeting is in progress,” he said, conveying the mood inside the military.
Source: www.dailynk.com
