So, the third and final day of the conference...
We started out with a brief by Dr. Bruce Bechtol, on "
The North Korean Evolving Threat: How will the ROK Counter It?". This was a very "hands-on" brief, in the sense that the audience gained a better understanding of the actual military capabilities of nK. It was interesting hearing about how their technology is ancient in today's context, and how - partly because of this - they have been shifting their focus to creating more and more light infantry units. It seems nK actually has the largest number of SOF in the world, with about 180 000 Soldiers. One person brought up the argument that "light infantry can hardly be considered SOF"; Bechtol countered that by saying that if you apply the US standard of SOF, very few Soldiers in the international arena measure up. Despite this, nK would be using it's light infantry in fairly unconventional ways in case of a conflict. Moreover, they receive a high degree of training comparatively, so it may indeed be legitimate to speak of SOF.
The next presentation was given by a fairly young man; this was a gentlemen who had defected/escaped from nK and who is now living in S. Korea, studying at a university. It was a very personal briefing and gave the audience a much, much better understanding of "what it's really like". He talked a lot about how
incredibly indoctrinated the north Koreans are.
The famines there have people cooking soup with tree bark and grass on a regular basis; kids lie down in the street to die from starvation; people are executed publicly for slaughtering animals for food.
After this we had a gentleman named Dr. Linton help us view "
North Korea Through the Eyes of Medicine". He gave an overview of the N. Korean "healthcare system" and expounded on the types of issues that people there are dealing with. As many of you may know, tuberculosis is a
huge issue in N. Korea and unfortunately they are unable to treat the patients in many many cases. One detail that stuck out to me personally was that in the few clinics that have x-ray machines - old, old east European models, I might add - the doctors get extra rice and even some beer from the government because, due to the fact that there is no film and no developer available, the doctors have to look directly into the x-rays, which leads to them contracting leukemia after a few years of doing this.
We then had, from what I understand, one of the leading experts on N. Korea speak to us about "
The Role of Digital Communication in Influencing North Korean People". Dr. Lankov explained how neither appeasement strategies nor sanctions will be able to solve the problems with nK and how, in his opinion, the only way of effecting change was through the N. Korean people themselves. This would occur by bringing information in - and virtually any information about the outside world would do - By catering to the N. Korean way of thought and focusing on exposing the lies perpetuated by the regime in regards to nationalism and history, it may be possible to slowly turn the citizens of N. Korea on to the ugly truth, namely that more or less everything they believe about the world and their leader is a lie. This would not only increase the awareness of the N. Korean people and subsequently the pressure on the regime, but also serve to slowly prepare them for life in a free world. Thinking about how N. Koreans will deal with their new found freedom is an interesting sociological question. They are so far from the highly educated, industrialized and technologically advanced South Koreans as one could imagine. Looking at the pictures of every day life in Korea one has the impression of looking at pictures from the early 20th century, if that. An indeed, N. Korea is just that, a feudalistic dynasty (based on hardline nationalism and race theory).
The conference was concluded by a nice presentation by Korean SWC - a martial arts demonstration, that had a lot of stones being broken by fists, elbows, and heads, as well as lots of flips and kicks. Quite impressive.
Again, I can't stress the high quality of the conference. Beyond that, I was also able to attain my first challenge coin, albeit not having earned it by spending time on a team. Nevertheless, I was assured by veteran SF Soldiers that it would probably hold its on in a coin challenge, so I am not ready and confident to meet some more SF Soldiers
