Chapter 2663
The new North Korean army, which has gradually taken shape over the past ten years, has copied the regulations of the Haihan Army, from weapons and equipment to unit organization, from daily training to officer training, from logistics supply to station infrastructure, and has extremely obvious The Haihan brand.
Although due to various objective reasons, the execution standards of the New Army on specific projects are still far behind those of the Haihan Army, its combat effectiveness has been completely transformed compared to before. Of course, corresponding to this is the huge expenditure spent on building and maintaining this army.
Given North Korea's economic situation, it really cannot afford to support a large-scale new army. Therefore, the new North Korean army that truly meets the standard has less than 50,000 people, and the ordinary troops scattered and deployed in local areas basically maintain the cold weapon era. level.
However, as long as the relationship with Haihan is maintained, these tens of thousands of new troops with firearms installed will be enough to maintain national security and political stability. Nowadays, there is not much military pressure from inside and outside North Korea, and it has no plans to expand externally. Maintaining the current scale of military power and gradually upgrading its armament level is the safest approach for North Korea.
Based on this current situation, military exchanges between the two countries are all based on cooperation. The military talks held at Gyeongbokgung Palace did not require debate between the two sides. The theme was the arrangement of this joint military exercise, and Haehan's actions in North Korea. Military deployment adjustments, as well as North Korea’s purchase plan for Haihan military equipment in the next year.
This joint military exercise plan continues the tradition and is still formulated by the Haihan Army. However, at the implementation level, there are still many details that need to be communicated and coordinated with the North Korean military.
"In this military exercise, we will use the armed fleet visiting Seoul as the main body, with a total of 22 ships participating in the exercise, and about 1,800 people participating in the exercise. The scheduled content of the exercise includes the fleet cooperating to perform reconnaissance and search missions , supply at sea, live-fire target shooting, launch amphibious operations on land..."
As the commander of this joint exercise, Shi Chengwu first briefly introduced the general arrangement of this military exercise. Most of the exercise subjects are conducted at sea, mainly training the maritime cooperative combat capabilities of the two navies.
The King of North Korea, Ri Zhi, will personally observe the exercise process. The performance of the participating troops will also be directly related to the military budget for the next year and even the career prospects of the generals. Therefore, the North Korean military also attaches great importance to this and specially applied for it. It took three days to hold a preparation meeting with Haihan.
On the North Korean side, Shin Hak-yi made a speech explaining the situation of the participating troops. Compared with the Haihan fleet that came from afar, the number of North Korean ships participating in the exercise was even larger, with a total of thirty ships.
However, the tonnage and equipment level of these ships are obviously not comparable to those of the Haihan fleet, and the tonnage gap between the two participating ships is still more than double. Moreover, the North Korean fleet needs to bear most of the supply transportation tasks during the exercise, so the number of combat ships is also relatively limited.
It is worth mentioning that all North Korea's participating ships are new sailing ships launched after 1648, and are no longer turtle ships and wooden house ships with low combat effectiveness. These new ships are built by shipyards that cooperate with Haihan. They all use the design plans and technical standards provided by Haihan, and their performance basically meets the requirements of joint military exercises.
Although the cost of building a new sailboat is still high, after realizing localized construction, it is ultimately much cheaper than ordering it directly from Haihan before. However, Haihan still has not provided the production technology of some key equipment on the ship to North Korea, and it still needs to order it from Haihan. Although it is basically sold for money, it still controls the scale of North Korea's shipbuilding to a certain extent. If North Korea wants to secretly build a batch of military ships on its own, it will lack the supply of these key parts and components, even if there are substitutes. greatly reduce performance.
Despite various restrictions, North Korea is still happy to build new ships to replace old warships. Because this not only means an increase in the combat effectiveness of one's own fleet, but also a threshold that must be crossed to cooperate with the Haihan fleet. Without these new ships in service, there is basically no need to expect Haihan to be able to play with the North Korean Navy in the future.
Haihan only arranged for military personnel to participate in the talks on military themes. Tao Hongfang and others were given the opportunity to take a vacation and could freely arrange their itinerary. Tao Hongfang and others had already scheduled the program and headed to the dock where the fleet was stationed on the Han River to see what was going on during the public open house day.
According to the schedule, during the days when the two sides are holding military talks, some ships of the Haihan Fleet will be open to all the public for a close visit on the Han River. On the one hand, this is to show the peaceful purpose of the fleet's visit, and on the other hand, of course, it is also to take this opportunity to show force to the North Korean people and shock the people.
Tao Hongfang and others naturally wanted to see how the North Korean people felt about Haihan's proud armed fleet.
Regarding the arrangements for open visits, on the day the fleet arrived in Seoul, the government posted announcements everywhere inside and outside the city. It can be said that everyone in the local area is aware of it. The public's response did not disappoint. Thousands of people came to the Han River early in the morning, waiting for the dock to open.
The North Korean side also attaches great importance to this event and has made various preparations in advance. The outermost circle is the horse-repelling fence deployed by the North Korean army, leaving only a five-foot-wide zigzag channel for visitors to enter. Patrols are constantly moving around to prevent anyone from climbing over and entering.
There are also checkpoints at the entrance to conduct simple checks on visitors. At the same time, the speed of releasing people can be adjusted according to the on-site conditions to avoid congestion caused by too many people in the visiting area.
The Haihan Army is responsible for maintaining order in the area within the checkpoint. Visitors can board some of the open ships along the designated route to view the equipment and facilities on the ship. Of course, visitors' activities on the ship are basically limited to the deck, and key areas such as the bridge or turret are still off-limits.
In order to avoid congestion as much as possible, two independent visiting areas have been specially set up in the east and west. The content of the visit is basically the same, which can also divert some people.
However, the enthusiasm of the local people far exceeded the official expectations. They had already surrounded the visiting area on three levels inside and three outside in the early morning. It is estimated that they may not be able to let in all the people by nightfall.
There were soldiers standing on high ground, holding tin trumpets, directing people to line up, and informing them of various precautions after entering the visiting area.
Of course, some smart people realized the business opportunities, and early on someone set up a stall outside and started selling breakfast. Soon tea sellers, cigarette sellers, fruit sellers, and various vendors also appeared around, giving the place a sense of a market.
(End of chapter)