The other North Korean threat

North Korea's successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 4, 2017, has rightfully occasioned concern and condemnation by the United States and others. Ruled for more than seven decades by the dynastic dictatorship of the Kim family, the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has, in recent years, made huge advances in nuclear weapons, missilery and cyber-warfare, with which it menaces the West and its allies.

Yet with tensions increasing on the Korean peninsula, policymakers should consider another threat emanating from Pyongyang: the regime's well-trained and fanatical special operations forces (SOF).

As foreign affairs analyst Kyle Mizokami has noted, North Korea might have "the largest special-forces organization in the world," with some estimates numbering 200,000 men and women, encompassing 25 brigades and five battalions.

A Pentagon report issued to Congress in 2016 called the DPRK's special operations forces "among the most highly-trained, well equipped, best fed and highly motivated" in the North's military. They give Pyongyang "significant capabilities for small-scale attacks that could rapidly escalate into a larger confrontation."

Should war erupt on the peninsula, the U.S. Department of Defense states that it's likely that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's military strategy will rely heavily on asymmetric warfare to offset the comparative technological advantages of the U.S., the Republic of Korea and others. Indeed, much of the regime's aircraft and the equipment of conventional forces in the Korean People's Army — including the North Korean People's Navy — are deeply outdated.