North Korea’s General Staff Department (GSD) recently ordered large-scale “enemy attack drills” using trash-laden balloons. Since May, the country has conducted 22 launches of balloons carrying waste paper, plastic, and other debris.
According to a military source recently, the GSD’s Combat Training Bureau instructed the Second Corps’ Operations Department to prepare to launch these balloons into specific regions, coordinating the attacks with GPS coordinates and airflow calculations.
Accordingly, the frontline units of the Second Corps have been planning various enemy attack exercises by precisely calculating the coordinates and air flow to launch the balloons carrying garbage at specific regions in South Korea and arbitrarily adjusting the launch times based on the wind direction and speed.
“The latest order is different from the one issued by the Military-Government Guidance Department in late June, which called for stepping up tactical exercises to attack South Korea instead of simple balloon launches,” the source said. “The intention is to strengthen the army’s ability to attack rear areas by infiltrating balloons through various ways to cause chronic fatigue and chaos in the puppet South Korean military.”
In North Korea, “enemy attack drills” refer to exercises to practice harassment tactics that create chaos in rear areas and depress enemy morale through psychological warfare, espionage and propaganda.
In short, North Korea aims to create chronic morale problems in the South Korean military and fatigue and unease in the South Korean society by adding balloon launches to the list of enemy attack exercises and systematizing them as military drills.
In fact, North Korea is drawing up plans for repeated and random launches of garbage-laden balloons as an “operation to harass the South endlessly.”
“The GSD included practical content in its order, calling for strengthening repeated precision infiltration drills with balloons based on accurate calculations,” the source said. “The order also said it is important to send balloons with timed explosives into South Korea in the future by calculating GPS coordinates and air flow while avoiding the air defense network of the South Korean military.”
The source said the GSD “plans to expand the amount and scope of garbage collection for balloons by making the family guidance departments of frontline units responsible for garbage collection and assigning soldiers’ families to collect garbage, while ordering soldiers’ families throughout the army to participate as well.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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September 27, 2024 at 07:18AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)