N. Korea again boosts special forces: S. Korea defense white paper

SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Kyodo) - North Korea has again boosted its special forces, which are trained to quickly infiltrate rear areas of South Korea if hostilities recommence, according to South Korea's defense white paper released Thursday.
The National Defense Ministry's biennial document said the North, which has been concentrating massively on enhancing its special warfare capabilities, now has some 200,000 elite soldiers in special warfare units, up from an estimated 180,000 two years ago and around 120,000 two years before that.
The ministry expects they would be used in a contingency to infiltrate into the entire area of the South, using underground tunnels and other means, with the aim of plunging its rear areas into chaos through disruption of facilities and operations, thus supporting offensive operations of the North's main forces.
The defense white paper also said North Korea's army now has 4,100 tanks, 200 more than the figure in the 2008 defense white paper, including new ones modeled after the Soviet T-72 tank which are deployed near the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.
It said the total number of North Korean military personnel remains unchanged at
about 1.19 million, with 1.02 million of them in the army, though the North has
reorganized its military to add four new divisions.
South Korea has an active-duty force of about 650,000, supported by some 28,000
U.S. troops stationed in the country.
In the white paper, South Korea designated North Korea's government and
military as its ''enemy,'' using a stronger expression than before but stopping
short of redefining them as the ''main enemy'' as was the case prior to 2004.
It said the North poses a ''grave threat'' to the South's security by ''staging
military provocations such as the torpedo attack on the Cheonan warship and the
shelling on Yeonpyeong Island.''
The document was referring to two incidents in the Yellow Sea over the past
year -- North Korea's Nov. 23 artillery attack on the South Korean frontline
island that killed four people, and the March 26 sinking of the South Korean
warship that killed 46 sailors.
According to the white paper, the number of North's long-range artillery pieces
has remained about the same over the past two years, with some 8,500 170
millimeter self-propelled artillery guns and 5,100 240-mm multiple rocket
launchers deployed along the heavily fortified border.
It warned that the North is capable of carrying out a ''massive surprise
bombardment'' on Seoul, which lies only about 50 kilometers from the border,
and its neighboring areas.
Yonhap News Agency quoted military officials as saying the North is
increasingly focused on unconventional or ''asymmetric'' weapons such as
improvised explosives or low-cost missiles because its leadership knows its
aging conventional weapons are no match for the technologically superior South
Korean and U.S. forces.
''Threats from North Korea's asymmetric warfare capabilities such as special
forces, artillery pieces and weapons of mass destruction have been on a steady
rise since 2008,'' Deputy Defense Minister Chang Kwang Il told reporters.
The white paper said the North continues to have around 420 battleships, 260
landing craft and 70 submarines, while it also has some 840 fighter aircraft,
about 20 fewer than in 2008.
North Korea is presumed to have secured about 40 kilograms of weapons-grade
plutonium, the paper said, noting that it is also pursuing a uranium enrichment
program that could give it a second route to build a nuclear bomb.
==Kyodo