My two favorite subjects: unconventional warfare and north Korea. Alas, this article does not add anything substantive or positive to those two subjects. It is based on and inspired by the Special Warfare magazine article on a ROK and US Joint training Exercise from 2013. It is amazing how many articles the Special Warfare magazine article has spawned. In the last paragraph of the postscript (yes this piece is so long it has a postscript) the author credits Special Warfare magazine for the inspiration of this article.
However, readers should be forewarned. This is a long and hugely sensational article that brings in many disparate issues on the Korean peninsula (from WMD to OPCON Transfer to China to north Korean culture, i.e., Songbun, to rebellion theory of Ted Gurr to quotes from GEN Sharp and Leon Panetta to ISIS and the 2008 RAND study on how terrorist organizations are defeated to the US Army Operating Concept and more) . But to give you a hint of why this is so far-fetched is that the author was influenced by David Hackworth (whom he calls "a visionary Special Forces operator" who also founded Delta Force - perhaps the names Hackworth and Beckwith are easily confused) who supposedly asked the author to write a white paper in 1999 for unconventional warfare in Korea (and the author now knows Hackworth was thinking outside the box in 1999. He also cites the influence"mercenaries." Unfortunately he also claims influence by a great American and someone for whom I do have a lot of respect: the late COL Carl Bernard (of Task Force Smith and later Special Forces fame).
But this article is all over the map and written by someone who can pull together many different sources, articles, concepts, current events, and a smattering of doctrine to weave a sensational tale.
WND EXCLUSIVE
U.S. SPECIAL FORCES TRAIN FOR NORTH KOREA MISSION
Is a popular, partisan revolt inside the Hermit Kingdom possible?
Published: 11 hours agohttp://www.wnd.com/2014/11/
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Soldiers of 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the Republic of Korea 11th Special Forces Brigade provide security for their fellow members during training near Gwangyang, South Korea, April 1, 2009. The two forces trained together during the annual springtime exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle. (Photo: U.S. Army)
Another famine grips North Korea. Morale is low. Elite U.S. Special Forces, having trained for years for this archetype scenario, enter North Korea from South Korea, via submarines off the coast and from mainland China.
They have deployed with a singular mission – that being to lead the North Korean people in a popular revolt against their oppressive, multigenerational Stalinist hereditary cult.
Several North Korean slave labor camps are liberated. North Korea’s elite intelligentsia advising dictator Kim Jong-un is whisked away, leaving him isolated.
China stands down and announces it won’t step in to save the regime in Pyongyang.
‘The Interview’ is a new Hollywood film about two journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate the leader of North Korea
The race is on to secure North Korea’s vast stockpile of biological and chemical weapons, while America prepares to use tactical nuclear weapons in the Korean theater in a fight to the finish.
While the aforementioned scenario sounds like fiction, it’s not as far-fetched as many might believe.
More specifically, various news reports state U.S. Special Forces have been training alongside Republic of (South) Korea Special Forces in mock scenarios in which they would be inserted into North Korea (also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or “DPRK”). Their mission would involve launching, growing and leading a partisan movement, or “indigenous resistance organization,” of North Korean citizens against the ruling regime.
Even Hollywood is now entertaining the thought of regime change in North Korea. Through the new comedy film, “The Interview,” which presents a plot about an assassination to be carried out by journalists on a covert CIA mission, Hollywood appears to be engaging neophyte North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This motion picture has unsettled North Korea to the point of the country filing a formal protest at the United Nations, saying it amounts to “an act of war.”
As these ancillary cultural products from reel life blend with real life, the long-running struggle between the U.S., South Korea, Japan and North Korea shows no signs of resolution, and it could very well escalate in the future with or without advanced notice.
Concerning the training of the U.S. Special Forces and South Korean Special Forces, in April of 2013, under the “Foal Eagle” venture, “Balance Knife 13-1″ saw U.S. Special Forces from the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Special Forces Group train alongside the 7th and 11th South Korean outfits. Alphas 1333 and 1336 belonging to Charlie Company were involved on the U.S. side.
North Korea watchers may well ask if North Korean society would survive such an incursion. Is the broad operational, tactical, strategic, cognitive and cultural architecture of such planning both rational and actionable? What are the conditions under which a population might rebel – such as in Romania in 1989? Can America’s elite Special Forces effectively plan and lead a successful partisan rebellion? If so, then how? Would North Korea’s regular army, militia and/or ordinary citizens really join in with such a revolt? If so, how many would join in with this rebellion?
When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited an all-female North Korean military unit, he was met with tremendous adulation. North Korea’s ‘juche’ philosophy of ‘self-reliance’ requires citizens and soldiers to at least outwardly display patriotism toward the ruling regime
Consider that when the boy-dictator Kim Jong-un visited an all-female North Korean military unit, he was greeted with near-hysterical tears and hero worship. Along those lines, Kim Jong-un has also been the subject of much speculation since he vanished from the public eye after Sept. 3, 2014, only to re-emerge sporting a cane in October.
Moreover, would North Korean allies and long-time benefactors such as China (which recently stated it would not intervene to save North Korea if the regime falls apart) and Russia stand down if U.S. Special Forces (and South Korean Special Forces) destabilized the regime inside North Korea? Could a regional or even a global and nuclear war be unleashed?
The U.S. Army’s Concept Development and Learning Directorate – which carries out research for possible future conflicts – claims it would take 56 days and 200,000 U.S. troops to get into North Korea and secure that nation’s nuclear stockpile. More recently, Leon Panetta, the former U.S. secretary of defense, stated in his new memoir, “Worthy Fights,” that U.S. war plans against North Korea include the use of nuclear weapons.
According to Newsweek, Panetta recalled a 2010 meeting with Gen. Walter Sharp, then-commander of U.S. forces in South Korea. He explained to Panetta, “If North Korea moved across the border, our war plans called for the senior American general on the peninsula to take command of all U.S. and South Korea forces and defend South Korea – including by the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.”
Cultural power
(Continued at the link below)
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