Special operations units are reorganizing around distinct combat missions and rotating through varied terrain as the regime prioritizes precision strike capabilities following observations from the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Sniper units have begun working to improve their combat capabilities under orders given by Kim Jong Un when he inspected a special operations training base under the General Staff Department of the Korean People’s Army in August,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK recently.
According to the source, the General Staff Department has reviewed organizational issues at the sniper training center on instructions from the Central Committee and finalized plans to create a central organization to not only provide technical training but also supervise tactical innovations in all areas of special operations.
Since November, the North Korean military has been gradually preparing to introduce a system of training multi-purpose agents to serve as snipers, scouts and target analysts.
Under Kim’s orders, the special operations training base has reorganized its training program around distinct missions inside sniper units so that combat troops can specialize in maneuvers, observation or precision strikes.
Training expanded to include support staff and equipment operators
The training base has also adopted field decision indicators for the maneuvering phase of special operations and action principles for the six stages of sniper combat that are based on actual combat. These are supposed to guide combat troops on what to do in each stage of combat.
In addition, the training bases are setting up outdoor training grounds to boost combat troops’ abilities, holding more drills that focus on identifying environmental changes, and training staff to better operate long-range observation equipment.
“Combat troops are being rotated through training areas with different meteorological and topographic conditions to prevent them from getting accustomed to any one environment. They’re also being trained to be more adaptable in combat,” the source said.
“The fact that the exercises have been expanded to include not only the snipers themselves but everybody connected with combat missions, including operations support staff, equipment operators and communications specialists, is viewed as a major change,” the source added.
Combat troops are reportedly enthusiastic about the new exercises, confident in the need to carry out their missions at a higher level.
In support of Kim’s instructions, the defense ministry has drawn up plans to prioritize supplying camouflage outfits and nets and observation equipment to special operations units and is preparing to provide more equipment tailored to mission areas before the end of the year.
The General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army confirmed the “training revolution, ideology revolution and tactics revolution” that Kim presented in his August orders as its propaganda and training program for November and distributed specific explanations and model lesson plans so that political commissars can give combat soldiers clear guidelines for action.
“It is important that we greatly increase our special operations capabilities and the ability of our professional snipers,” Kim said while reviewing the training of sniper units and special forces during a visit to the special operations training base under the KPA General Staff Department in late August.
Then in mid-September, Kim attended a shooting competition between snipers with the Pyongyang Guard Command and snipers from the special mobility unit under the Central Committee while visiting the No. 38 Training Base in the Pyongyang area. During that visit, Kim announced the scale of sniper training and the national distribution of sniper units and called for the adoption of training methods suitable for the needs of modern warfare and the establishment of an innovative education and training system.
Kim’s instructions suggest that North Korea’s participation in Russia’s war with Ukraine has convinced the regime of the need to better train its professional snipers.
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