A fifth battalion is reportedly organized for out-of-country operations. They likely have intimate-and highly classified-knowledge of both friendly and enemy defenses in the demilitarized zone. Highly trained and organized, these five-hundred-man battalions are trained to lead an army corps through the hazardous DMZ. One platoon of thirty to forty troops per Army sniper brigade consists solely of women, trained to conduct combat operations dressed as civilians.ДЇinally, the Reconnaissance Bureau maintains four separate reconnaissance battalions. They will frequently be dressed in civilian, South Korean military, or U.S. Sniper brigades are trained in strategic reconnaissance and so-called вЂњdirect actionвЂќ missions including assassination missions, raids against high-level targets military and economic targets, sabotage, disruption of South KoreaвЂ™s reserve system, covert delivery of weapons of mass disruption (including possibly radiological weapons), and organizing antigovernment guerrilla campaigns in South Korea.

Unlike their American counterparts, it appears some these units are capable of fighting as conventional airborne, air assault, or naval infantry. Each consists of approximately 3,500 men, organized into seven to ten sniper вЂњbattalions.вЂќ These units fulfill a broad variety of roles and are roughly analogous to U.S. In addition, North Korea has an estimated eight вЂњsniper brigades,вЂќ three for the PeopleвЂ™s Army (Seventeenth, Sixtieth and Sixty-First Brigades), three for the Army Air Force (Eleventh, Sixteenth and Twenty-First Brigades), and two for the PeopleвЂ™s Navy (Twenty-Ninth, 291st). Unlike the Eighty-Second, however, NKPA airborne brigades are unlikely to operate at the battalion level or higher, and due to a lack of long-range transport cannot operate beyond the Korean Peninsula. Each brigade is organized into six airborne infantry battalions with a total strength of 3,500. NKPA airborne forces would likely target enemy airfields, South Korean government buildings, and key roads and highways to prevent their sabotage. The Thirty-Eighth, Forty-Eighth and Fifty-Eighth Airborne Brigades operate much like the Eighty-Second Airborne Division, conducting strategic operations including airborne drops to seize critical terrain and infrastructure. Special Operations Command, coordinating the special forces of the Army, Army Air Force and Korean PeopleвЂ™s Navy.ДЄ further three brigades are special-purpose airborne infantry. The Light Infantry Training Guidance Bureau, part of the Korean PeopleвЂ™s Army, functions as a kind of analog to U.S. The country maintains twenty-five special-forces and special-purpose brigades, and five special-forces battalions, designed to undertake missions from frontline DMZ assault to parachute and assassination missions. In response, North Korea has upped the importance of its special forces.

The rest of PyongyangвЂ™s armored corps are in a similar predicament, making them decidedly inferior to U.S. The countryвЂ™s conventional forces, facing a long slide after the end of the Cold War, have faced equipment obsolescence and supply shortages-for example, North Korea has very few tanks based on theВ 1970sВ Soviet T-72, and most are still derivatives of theВ 1960s-eraВ T-62. India and China are slated to conduct the 14th round of corps commander-level talks this month.For decades North Korea maintained an impressive all-arms force of everything from tanks to mechanized infantry, artillery, airborne forces and special forces. The three-day exercise had witnessed hundreds of pre-acclimatised troops and heavy weapon systems being air-dropped at an altitude of over 14,000-feet amidst minus 20o Celsius temperatures. Last month, in a signal to China to desist from any misadventure, the Army and IAF had also conducted a major вЂњairborne insertion and combatвЂќ exercise along the frontier in eastern Ladakh. вЂњThe exercise showcased the capability of the Srinagar based 15 вЂChinarвЂ™ Corps and other Army units to carry out successful operations in high altitude areas,вЂќ he added. Different aspects of electronic warfare were also validated in the exercise,вЂќ an officer said. вЂњThe exercise included transport and armed helicopters of the Army and IAF, including the latest Apache attack-choppers. The exercise saw the task force, which included infantry soldiers, special forces and marine commandos, being airdropped in a snow-clad region at an altitude of over 9,000 feet. NEW DELHI: The Army on Tuesday conducted a helicopter-borne exercise in the higher reaches of the Kashmir Valley to practice inserting a task force вЂњbehind enemy lines in an intense air defence and electronic warfare-operating environmentвЂќ.

Operate behind enemy lines