The Korean People’s Army (KPA) of North Korea, while heavily reliant on dated Cold War-era equipment, has strategically compensated for its conventional arsenal’s limitations by developing formidable special forces capabilities.

Trained for asymmetric warfare, these elite units pose a unique challenge to adversaries with their potential to operate behind enemy lines, including the utilization of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

North Korea’s military doctrine has emphasized economic efficiency by investing in a special forces program that is both cost-effective and strategically advantageous. The KPA’s special forces believed to include as many as 200,000 highly trained soldiers, are a testament to this approach.

Despite the KPA’s underwhelming conventional firepower compared to that of the United States and South Korea, its special forces are designed to level the playing field through asymmetrical tactics.

Their primary missions range from conducting reconnaissance and performing combat operations in conjunction with conventional forces, to establishing a second front within South Korea’s rear areas, countering ROK/US special operations forces in North Korea’s rear, and maintaining internal security.

Dispersed across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Reconnaissance General Bureau, these special forces units are versatile and deeply integrated into the KPA’s military structure.

In the event of a renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula, it is expected that the KPA would fully mobilize these special forces to exploit their asymmetrical warfare capabilities.

They would likely target critical infrastructure and personnel deep within South Korean territory, prioritizing the seizure and destruction of vital military targets.

The aim would be to disrupt the arrival of ROK and US reinforcements and supplies, a tactic that could significantly impair the adversary’s combat efficacy.

A chilling component of the KPA’s special forces is their capability to deploy biological and chemical weapons, with North Korea possessing one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical agents, including nerve, blister, blood, and vomiting agents, and biological agents such as anthrax, smallpox, and cholera.

This WMD capability is an alarming aspect that many fear could be employed if the regime perceives an existential threat.

The modus operandi of these special forces during an attack is expected to be covert, with operatives potentially donning civilian attire or even ROK or US military uniforms.

Operating typically in small units with a limited but effective arsenal, they would act as guerrilla units, difficult to detect and counter.

The KPA’s special forces carry the significant psychological burden of asymmetrical warfare to their adversaries.

While South Korea and the U.S. may have aspirations for a unified Korean Peninsula free from the North Korean threat, the prospect of conflict involving the KPA’s special forces, conventional artillery, and WMD arsenal makes the cost of war potentially astronomical.