Euronews:
Like many in North Korea’s army of 1.2 million, Eom Yeong-nam spent more time holding the wooden handle of a shovel than a Kalashnikov rifle during his years in the 501 Construction Brigade.
“Except for basic military training two to three months a year, we worked on building apartments or concrete structures for nine to ten months,” said Eom, who served 10 years in the army before defecting to the South in 2010, a year before Kim Jong Un assumed power in isolated North Korea.
The young leader has since expanded the use of so-called “soldier-builders”, fuelling a construction boom as many of North Korea’s Soviet-era conventional weapons become outmoded.
His military focus is increasingly on “asymmetric” capabilities such as nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and cyber warfare to deter North Korea’s main enemies, the United States and South Korea.
Tensions with both have been on the rise since the start of the year.
North Korea, under tightened United Nations sanctions following its fourth nuclear test in January and a space rocket launch the following month, said on Monday it will make a “physical response” to moves by the United States and South Korea to deploy an advanced missile defence system on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea also said on Monday it was cutting off its only channel of communications with the United States following a U.S. decision to sanction Kim Jong Un by name for human rights abuses and base the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea.
The focus on the asymmetric capabilities has been accompanied by a downscaling of the importance of the military within North Korea’s power structure. Slowly, Kim is dismantling the “military first” policy of his late father, Kim Jong Il, and giving precedence to the ruling Workers Party.
This was evident most recently when the National Defence Commission, a military body promoted by Kim’s father as one of the highest decision-making institutions in government, was replaced last month by the civilian-heavy State Affairs Commission.
