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by Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans.
Softcover (8.2×11.7 inches). 56 pages. 2025.
Subtitle: Volume 1 Part 1: Korean People’s Army Ground Forces Organisation, Strategy and Infantry
I’m not sure why upcoming Part 2 couldn’t be integrated with this current Part 1 to form one volume considering that this has far fewer pages compared to other books in the series. The text hints at four more volumes.
That said, this seems comprehensive, or at least as comprehensive as I can tell — which is minimal not being a modern warfare buff. The North Korean Army has 89 divisions (p10) with 7.62 million active and reserve soldiers (p9), of which 1.2 million are active military. South Korea has 3.75 million active and reserve troops (p12) plus some US troops. Indigenous weapon production, including infantry firearms, man-portable missiles, and anti-tank missiles, is well advanced in North Korea.
This volume covers a multitude of them as well as APCs and fire support vehicles.
One typo in Footnote 22 (p56) “acquisition of 70 units feel through” should be fell through.
The book contains 68 color photos, three black and white photos, one color map, three color uniform illustrations, 21 color infantry weapon illustrations, and one color camouflage illustration of an APC.
This is an excellent place to start for information about the history of the North Korean armed forces and especially infantry weapons and some armored vehicles.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
