He spent 3 years as a forward observer for artillery. He says withdrawing the GPs don't just get rid of guards, but also forward observers at the GPs. Thus, he says, it'll render artillery further back useless. https://t.co/y2qtqUDsiI
These are very capable artillery pieces that Estonia is purchasing from South Korea:
South Korean troops take part in an exercise using self-propelled artillery near the Demilitarized Zone on May 10, 2016. According to reports on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, a South Korean company has entered into a $54 million deal to sell howitzers to the Baltic nation of Estonia.
Estonia has agreed to buy South Korean artillery in a $54 million deal that officials say will substantially boost the small Baltic country’s defense capacity.
The Estonian military procurement agency says the contract with Seoul-based weapons producer Hanwha Land Systems is for 12 K9 Thunder howitzers, training, maintenance and spare parts.
Agency director Col. Rauno Sirk said after a signing ceremony on Tuesday that the artillery pieces “will bring Estonia’s defense capacity to a new level and be one of the most considerable steps of building up armored maneuvering capacity.”
The first howitzers are to arrive in Estonia in 2020. [Stars & Stripes]
Removing the North Korean artillery from areas along the DMZ would be a huge concession by the Kim regime which is why I would be surprised to see this happen:
Military officials from the two Koreas hold rare talks at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom on June 14, 2018, in this photo released by the joint press corps. (Yonhap)
South Korea proposed that North Korea move its long-range artillery away from the heavily fortified border in an effort to reduce tensions during last week’s rare cross-border military talks, government sources here said Sunday.
During Thursday’s general-grade meeting, the first in more than a decade, Seoul made a series of suggestions, including relocating the artillery pieces to areas 30 to 40 kilometers away from the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, the insiders said.
The two sides held the talks to follow up on the Panmunjom Declaration from the April 27 inter-Korean summit at the truce village, which calls for joint efforts to alleviate military tensions and “practically eliminate the danger of war.”
“We conveyed our position to the North that in light of consultations between the North and the United States over the denuclearization issue, we have to craft measures to drastically reduce military tensions by removing practical threats,” a source said on condition of anonymity.
“I understand that (the South) suggested moving the North’s artillery that threatens the Seoul metropolitan area to rear areas so as to actively implement the Panmunjom Declaration,” the source added.
According to a 2016 South Korean defense white paper, the North has 14,100 artillery pieces, including 5,500 multiple rocket launchers, a majority of which have been deployed near the border.
Pyongyang is known to possess a variety of rocket systems, including 170 mm-caliber self-propelled howitzers and 240 mm multiple rocket launchers that can easily target Seoul and surrounding areas.
The North’s longer-range 300 mm multiple rocket launcher is seen as more formidable, as it is capable of reaching key U.S. military installations in Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province and the headquarters of the South’s Army, Navy and Air Force in the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but North Korea’s artillery has been their source of deterrence for decades. If it wasn’t for North Korea’s artillery threat on Seoul a regime change war would have likely happened by now considering the outrageous provocations the Kim regime has committed over the years.
Removing the artillery from its carefully hardened positions on the DMZ would ultimately be a threat to regime security which is why I would be surprised to see this happen.
A South Korean Army artillery unit fires a K-55 self-propelled howitzer during a live-fire drill at a training range in the South Korean border city of Paju, north of Seoul, on May 22, 2017, one day after North Korea test-fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile the previous day. (Yonhap) (
It appears for now the North Koreans are holding off on a nuclear test and instead held a military drill with 300-400 artillery pieces. It is pretty clear the signal the Kim regime is sending is that this artillery can obliterate Seoul if ordered to:
South Korea’s military said Tuesday that North Korea held major live-fire drills in an area around its eastern coastal town of Wonsan as it marked the anniversary of the founding of its military.
The exercise took place as a U.S. guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea and envoys from the United States, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo to discuss the growing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles program.
Experts thought North Korea might conduct a nuclear test or a ballistic missile launch to mark the anniversary, but as of Tuesday evening neither had occurred.
Crowds in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, laid flowers and paid respects at giant statues of the country’s former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, one day after the minister of defense reiterated that the North was ready to use pre-emptive strikes or any measures it deems necessary to defend itself against “U.S. imperialists.”
“The situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out due to the frantic war drills of the U.S. imperialists and their vassal forces for aggression,” Gen. Pak Yong Sik told a meeting of thousands of senior military and civilian officials. [Associated Press]
A towed artillery piece fires as reservists and soldiers from the South Korean Army’s 1st Corps conduct a live-fire exercise at a range in Paju, north of Seoul, bordering North Korea, on Sept. 8, 2016. (Yonhap)
Here is another example of the strategic messaging the North Koreans are sending towards the ROK that they can target and destroy Seoul:
Satellite imagery of a replica of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae that North Korea has set up in preparations for a large-scale artillery assault exercise.
North Korea is preparing to launch a large-scale artillery assault drill on a replica of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in a move to fan cross-border tensions in the runup to a rare congress of its ruling party, the military here said Wednesday.
About 30 artillery pieces have been brought to a training range just outside of Pyongyang where a replica of Cheong Wa Dae, about half its actual size, was set up in early April, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.
The types of artillery cannot be identified because they are covered up, he said, citing satellite surveillance results.
“The North is likely to conduct an actual exercise in the near future,” according to the official.
The move is intended to instill animosity among North Koreans toward Seoul’s leadership and to tighten internal unity ahead of the congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea set to start on May 6, he noted.
In a string of warlike rhetoric, the North has repeatedly threatened to launch strikes on the presidential office and South Korean state agencies. [Korea Times]
