U.S.-South Korea Joint Drills vs. North Korea’s Airborne Forces

U.S.- South Korea Joint Aerial Infiltration Exercise
Comparison with North Korean Airborne Forces
“North Korea Lacks Confidence in Aerial Warfare”

It was revealed that the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command (SWC) conducted a joint aerial infiltration exercise with the U.S. Special Operations Command Korea (SOCKOR) at Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province on the 18th. This exercise seems to be a response to the incident last month when several casualties occurred during North Korea’s airborne training.

According to a military official on the 19th, the SWC announced they had conducted a large-scale joint aerial infiltration exercise with SOCKOR at Osan Air Base on the 18th.

The participating U.S. Special Operations Command Korea is a special operations force that supports the Combined Forces Command, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), and the UN Command. It also enhances the capabilities of both countries’ special operations missions through regular joint training and tactical discussions with the SWC of South Korea.

The U.S.-South Korea joint aerial infiltration exercise was planned to enhance wartime mission performance and interoperability by using joint aviation assets to conduct arbitrary area aerial infiltration.

Reportedly, soldiers from the SWC, Golden Bat and Onnuri units, and SOCKOR participated in the training, going through the realistic scenario to infiltrate the target area and eliminate the target quickly through C-17, C-130J, C-130H, and CN-235 transport aircraft.

A military official reported that the training was completed successfully without human or equipment damage through strong ground training, stability evaluation, reinforcement before and after the attack, air base operation control, real-time weather change confirmation, communication system construction, and safety duty officer deployment. It was reported that the remarks seemed to be conscious of the casualties that occurred during the North Korean airborne training that was conducted earlier.

Colonel Park Wan Ho, Commander of the 33rd Battalion of the 7th Special Forces Brigade (Airborne) Pegasus, who participated in the U.S.-South Korea joint training, said, “Through realistic joint aerial infiltration training, we have improved the ability of U.S.-South Korea special operations agents to eliminate targets quickly.” He expressed his training impressions: “In the future, U.S.-South Korea special forces will be fully prepared for immediately, strongly, and until the end readiness through strong training for mission accomplishment.”

Furthermore, Colonel James Johnson, the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Liaison Officer from the U.S. Special Operations Command Korea, said, “During the training, we reaffirmed the will of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and formed a Fight Tonight posture that we can fight and win today as one team.”

It is reasonable to consider the South Korean military’s training as being conscious of North Korea, so the public’s interest is in who would be superior in aerial warfare between South and North Korea.

It is premature to judge which side is superior as there has been no direct aerial warfare between North and South Korea since the armistice. However, according to the testimonies of defectors, the South is speculated to be slightly more superior.

Last year, Thae Yong Ho, a defector and a member of the People’s Power Party, sparked controversy by stating, “Kim Jong Un, who lacks confidence in aerial warfare, cowardly fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from North Korean territory.”

This is a claim that North Korea adjusted the range of its intercontinental ballistic missile, conscious that it would not have aerial warfare because it lacked confidence in it. North Korea seemed to prove Thae Yong-ho’s claim by testing a nuclear unmanned underwater vessel, Haeil, last year.

North Korea is staking its life on the development of new weapons using nuclear power because South Korea is in a superior position with advancements in weapons such as fighter jets, unmanned combat aircraft (drones), and missiles, typically used in aerial warfare, than North Korea.

The unmanned underwater vessel Haeil, revealed last year, was confirmed to be a copy of Russia’s nuclear propulsion intercontinental underwater torpedo Poseidon. Haeil is designed to cause a super-strong radioactive tsunami when it explodes underwater after being armed with a nuclear warhead. The strategic cruise missile Hwasal can also be seen as developed from the same perspective.

These moves by North Korea can be speculated to show off various new weapons using nuclear power to neutralize our kill chain and U.S.-South Korea training.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Chairman of the State Affairs Commission Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attended the airborne training of the airborne forces on the 15th of last month, which caused casualties.

The reason for the casualties of airborne training is the hurried training despite the worsening weather conditions and strong winds. There were incidents where parachutes did not open, and soldiers’ parachute lines got tangled with each other, causing dozens of young soldiers to get injured or killed due to the hurried enforcement.