The North Korean 11th "Storm Corps" that in the past was the elite tip of the spear to invade South Korea is now clearly a shadow of its former self.
North Korea, desperate to seal the Chinese border, has been sending thousands of their special operations troops to the border because all other types of troops and secret police detachments have failed. Most of the 200,000 North Korean special operations troops belong to the 11 th Storm Corps. Most of the special operations troops are light infantry that train intensively to master one special skill. There are twelve light infantry brigades, three sniper brigades, three airborne brigades and a marine brigade. The most elite units are the 25 reconnaissance battalions, most of them trained to sneak through the DMZ and make surprise attacks early in a war.
As Kim Jong Un ordered more and more Strom Corps troops to the Chinese border this year, it became painfully obvious that these units were not as special as described. Years of less food and less time for intensive training became apparent on the Chinese border where Strom Corps patrols were often sloppy and there were obvious discipline problems.
Long ago the North Korean ruling class decided to focus scarce resources on the secret police and nuclear weapons. The secret police--including the elite military units--would protect the regime from the rest of the people, including the regular military. The nukes would protect the regime from invasion.
The regime can afford to pay for fewer and fewer loyal spooks and hasn't quite mastered the nukes. But it isn't quite working as planned. It's always possible the rest of the people will solve our North Korea problem.
One day. Hopefully before the kooks have working nukes.
