[Defence Club by Yang Nak-kyu]”North Korea, don’t move your biological weapons”…a tense drill site

ORIGINAL LINK : https://www.asiae.co.kr/article/2023110211340425754

On the 24th of last month, amidst the large-scale annual outdoor mobility training called Hoguk Exercise, overseen by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the training ground of the 37th Division Engineer Battalion in Jeungpyeong County, North Chungcheong Province was filled with makeshift tents. Inside the tents, enlisted soldiers were on standby. The scenario for the day’s training was to prepare for a situation where North Korea launches a biochemical weapon during wartime, with the main task being to treat injured soldiers and manage mass casualties. The goal of this exercise is to swiftly treat the wounded and recover equipment damaged by biochemical weapons.

The Hoguk Exercise was established in 1978 to fill the gap left by the return of peacetime operational control to South Korea in 1994 from the U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command, which had previously overseen the joint training. Although the exercise was significantly downsized under the Moon Jae-in administration, it has been reinforced under the current administration. In this Hoguk Exercise, the army was divided into the Blue and Yellow forces to focus on offense and defense against North Korea’s biochemical weapon attacks.

Army, Blue vs Yellow Forces Conduct Biochemical Weapon Training

Outside the training ground, eight K-200 infantry fighting vehicles that had been hit by a biochemical weapon attack entered the base one after another with a loud roar. As soon as the armored vehicles stopped, the soldiers inside, dressed in protective suits, fully armed, disembarked. The biochemical weapon alert level for the day was at level 4 out of 5 in the Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP), which requires full gear including protective suits, gas masks, and gloves.

The exercise also included soldiers who were virtually wounded. Medical officers used patient transport vehicles to lay down the soldiers and move them to the tents. Although the wounded area was identified, they could not remove the protective suits due to the risk of contamination that could potentially be fatal.

They began to slowly remove the protective gear, starting with the gas mask, after spraying disinfectant. A soldier who had a gunshot wound to the abdomen was moved to another tent as soon as the bandage wrapped around his abdomen was exposed. U.S. forces also joined in. The hands of the soldiers from the 65th Medical Brigade of the U.S. Forces Korea moved swiftly. Despite the language barrier with our military, the treatment of the wounded proceeded quickly through simple gestures. This is because reducing the time to disinfect biochemical weapons and provide emergency treatment can significantly increase the survival rate.

Sergeant Do Ji-hun, a member of the U.S. Forces Korea, said, “I joined the U.S. military in 2018 and was assigned to the U.S. Forces Korea in March last year, so this is my first U.S.-ROK joint training.” He added, “Although the training methods and equipment are different, it is beneficial to share information with each other through training.”

Wounded soldiers who had finished emergency treatment used the U.S. military’s medical evacuation vehicles. U.S. soldiers were responsible for loading the soldiers onto the medical evacuation vehicle, which can carry four patients. On one side of the training ground, the disinfection of armored vehicles was in full swing. It looked like they were washing cars. A military official said, “The water pressure using the disinfectant is about four times that of a regular car wash,” adding, “If it is not thoroughly disinfected, secondary contamination can occur.”

This year’s training also included a process to reduce the soldiers’ fear and combat stress. This is because soldiers experiencing wartime situations for the first time can lose their combat power due to mental fatigue. Lieutenant Bae Ji-hong, a military chaplain, said, “I realized that it is also important to heal the soldiers’ minds during the mass casualty treatment training process,” and added, “I will help strengthen the soldiers’ mental strength through faith.”

North Korea Estimated to Have Up to 1.24 Million Rounds of Biochemical Weapons… Contamination Volume Four Times the Area of Seoul

This training was conducted in anticipation of North Korea increasing its production of biochemical weapons. According to the ‘Northeast Asia Security Situation Analysis’ data published by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), the amount of chemical agents that North Korea possesses is approximately 2,500 to 5,000 tons. Considering that 4kg of chemical agents are used per biochemical weapon, the number of chemical shells ranges from 625,000 to a maximum of 1.25 million. This is enough to contaminate an area four times the size of Seoul, or 965 square miles.

The U.S. and South Korea estimate that if North Korea loads 560kg of VX gas, which is suspected to have been used in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, onto a Scud missile and strikes downtown Seoul, it could cause more than 200,000 casualties. Therefore, they are preparing measures to counter North Korea’s biochemical warfare and preemptive strikes. The U.S. and South Korea are focusing on exercises that precisely strike Pyongyang’s Yongbyon nuclear facility, major command facilities, and major missile bases across North Korea, moving away from the method of strengthening defensive posture that they have been practicing. This is a training exercise that virtually attacks 700 selected Joint Designated Points of Impact (JDPI).

The U.S. and South Korea first applied ‘Operation Plan 5015’, which includes JDPI, during the Key Resolve (KR) joint exercise in 2016. ‘Operation Plan 5015’ integrates ‘Operation Plan 5029’ to prepare for sudden changes in North Korea, ‘Operation Plan 5027’ to prepare for full-scale war, and peacetime operations to respond to local provocations. ‘Operation Plan 5015’ is known to include plans to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD), cyber warfare, and biochemical warfare. It also includes the ‘Tailored Deterrence Strategy’, which can preemptively strike North Korean nuclear and missile facilities, and the ‘4D Plan’ (Detect, Disrupt, Destroy, Defend).

By Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter if@asiae.co.kr
<ⓒ투자가를 위한 경제콘텐츠 플랫폼, 아시아경제(www.asiae.co.kr) 무단전재 배포금지>