Nuclear backpacksNorth Korea creates specials nuclear backpack units to infiltrate the South
North Korea has established a special infantry unit whose soldiers are being trained for a one-way mission: in the event of war with South Korea, they will infiltrate the South carrying nuclear devices in backpacks and detonate their weapons in the middle of population centers. North Korean military issued calls to the nation’s soldiers to become human “nuclear arsenals” in the event of war in the region. Military analysts said the units are, in effect, suicide squads, resembling the Japanese kamikaze pilots sent to attack Allied warships toward the end of the Second World War.
New reports say that North Korea has established a special infantry unit whose soldiers are being trained for a one-way mission: in the event of war with South Korea, they will infiltrate the South carrying nuclear devices in backpacks and detonate their weapons in the middle of population centers.
Radio Free Asia, quoting anonymous North Korean sources, said the North Korean military issued calls to the nation’s soldiers to become human “nuclear arsenals” in the event of war in the region.
“Outstanding soldiers were selected from each reconnaissance platoon and light infantry brigade to form the nuclear backpack unit the size of a battalion,” said a source from North Hamgyong province.
The source said that the formation of the new squads came at around the same time that the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to impose a new round of sanctions on North Korea, following the country’s fourth nuclear test on 6 January, and the launch on 7 February of a rocket carrying a satellite, which military analysts viewed as a disguised ballistic missile test.
North Korean military authorities have instructed the soldiers in the special squads about the effects of nuclear pack bombs. The backpack bombs do not generate as big an explosion as nuclear bombs carried by a missile, but it disables the enemy by spraying deadly radioactive material.
The dummy bombs that nuclear pack units use in training weight from 10 kilograms (22 pounds) to 28 kilograms (62 pounds), the source said.
Military analysts said the units are, in effect, suicide squads, resembling the Japanese kamikaze pilots sent to attack Allied warships toward the end of the Second World War.
The news reports from North Korean cone against the backdrop of joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises – code-named Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises — in which more than 50,000 South Korea and 25,000 U.S. personnel are taking part.
The North Korean sources who spoke with Radio Free Asia said that North Korean troops are being told that an aircraft carrier “will capsize, even if a nuclear backpack is detonated at a distance.”
The Telegraph reports that during a military parade in October to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, units of soldiers wearing backpacks with the black-and-yellow radiation symbol marched through Kim Il-Sung Square.
The source told Radio Free Asia that the special units have been formed since March this year, but the South Korean Yonhap News reported that troops carrying similar backpacks were also seen marching during a military parade in 2013.
On Tuesday, the official North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun warned that the nation “will not show any mercy to aggressors.”
The official statement accused the United States of preparing to carry out a “pre-emptive nuclear attack” on North Korea as the first stage in a campaign to control the Asia-Pacific region. The Rodong Sinmun said the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises are “criminal.”
“The U.S. frequently tried to browbeat the DPRK [North Korea] with the latest huge strategic assets, but it proved futile every time,” it said. “The U.S. would be well advised to come to its senses.”
