Students and women mobilized for large-scale military exercises
More than 1.4 million young people and students in North Korea participating in the People’s Army enlistment and support petition meeting. Image | KCNA
North Korea last week began nationwide military drills involving various army units, along with civil defense forces, Worker-Peasant Red Guards, and the Red Youth Guards.
The exercises, ordered on March 4 by the Central Military Commission, are expected to continue until the end of this month.
Sources report that besides soldiers, middle and high school students, as well as members of the Women’s League, are required to participate.
The drills appear to be in response to joint US-ROK military exercises in South Korea, which North Korea routinely declares to be a prelude to an actual invasion from the South.
As indication of the level of tension, Kim Yo-jong, the Deputy Department Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the ruling Workers’ Party, said Washington had “openly shown its intent to be the most hostile and confrontational” and added that North Korea is “seriously considering measures to intensify strategic-level threats.”
Kim, the powerful sister of dictator Kim Jong-un, was commenting on the entry of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson into the South Korean port of Busan.
On the evening of March 4, civil defense forces in Yanggang Province declared a state of emergency, mobilizing students and Women’s League members, who were seen gathering in designated locations dressed in combat uniforms.
The following day, various groups began conducting weapons drills and grenade throwing exercises. Sources in North Korea say these are being described as much more intense than any previous training sessions.
The sources indicate that the emergency mobilizations and shooting exercises have primarily been led by the Red Youth Guards and the Worker-Peasant Red Guards. The obligatory participation by middle and high school students, as well as by Women’s League members, is unusual.
There has been significant discontent among the public regarding the scale and intensity of the training, the sources say.
“While military drills, including civil defense training, have been conducted before, it is highly unusual to carry out such drills just before the busy farming season,” one source said. “Many people are criticizing the involvement of students, deeming it inappropriate. Some people even think this might indicate an impending war.”
Kang is a reporter at NK Times, a Seoul-based media outlet focused on North Korean issues. He was born in 1978 in Chongjin and graduated from Chongjin 1st High School in North Korea. After 10 years of military service in the 4th Army Corps, he attended Chongjin Agricultural University before defecting.
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