North Korea's military commands 195,000 troops trained to launch various types of terror attacks on South Korea, a defector said Wednesday.
The number includes 110,000 troops in the special forces, 40,000 in air and naval brigades, 10,000 charged with cyber terrorism, and 5,000 in the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea's top intelligence agency, said Kim Seong-min of the NK People's Liberation Front, a group of defectors from North Korea's armed forces.
The troops are trained to "damage South Korea's reputation by creating an internal commotion, and paralyze the country's command structures to facilitate a (Pyongyang-led) forced unification of the Korean Peninsula," Kim said. He was speaking at a press conference marking the day the Koreas signed an armistice agreement at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The figure also includes some 30,000 troops, who are believed to be operating behind closed doors within the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the ruling Workers' Party and other departments.
These people are tasked with plotting hackings, assassinations and psychological warfare against the South, Kim said.
Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for a range of terrorist attacks in recent years, including last year's deadly sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors, and the crippling of a major local bank's computer network in April. North Korea denies the accusations. (Yonhap News)
