Monday, May 3, 2010

North Korea’s ‘Human Torpedoes’: Myth, or Military Threat?


Last month, the South Korean warship Cheonan was ripped in half by an explosion, not far from the disputed maritime boundary with North Korea. The incident claimed the lives of at least 40 crew members, and speculation continues about what, exactly, brought down the ship.

The latest theory: An elite squad of North Korean naval kamikazes, working on direct orders of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. “‘Human Torpedoes’ are the North’s secret naval weapon,” claims South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo. “A unit of 13 specially trained commandos and modified midget submarines” brought down the ship, writes the U.K. Telegraph.

So what, exactly, is a “human torpedo?” According to a rather breathless account in the Chosun Ilbo, these elite combat swimmers are from North Korea’s 17th Sniper Corps. Quoting the blog (!) of a North Korean poet who defected to South Korea, the paper said Kim’s torpedo units “are treated better than submarine crew and their training centers around suicide bombing attacks.” The paper even doctored up a priceless image — shown here — of a suicide-bomber riding a torpedo to its target.

Mmmkay. The sourcing on these articles is a bit dubious: several of them rely on unnamed “experts” or “intelligence sources.” As the Los Angeles Times notes, South Korea’s defense minister, Kim Tae-young, has been publicly doubtful about whether a commando could manage to steer a small submersible like a SEAL Delivery Vehicle into a ship that was moving at speed. “SDVs are very slow and there is a low possibility that such vessels were used in an attack,” Kim reportedly told lawmakers.

Still, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is vowing to find the culprit. A multinational team is investigating the incident, and the United States thus far is erring on the side of caution. However, CNN yesterday quoted an unnamed U.S. military official who said a North Korean torpedo attack likely caused the sinking.

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