The Firearm Blog

The BBC reports that the North Korean weapon purchases are up from $13 million, during the previous South Korea administration, to $65 million. Weapons are being supplied by China, Russia, Germany, the Slovak Republic and others.

While the supreme leader buys weapons and develops bombs the people are starving and the country relies of food aid.

“The report shows the North has developed its military capacity despite severe food shortages,” Mr Kwon told reporters.

He said more caution should be practised when providing aid to the reclusive, impoverished, communist state.

Ideally the South would like to keep the North fed and intact, to prevent a flood of 20+ million impoverished refugees, and also does not want aid turned into weapons. This is just not possible.

UPDATE: It is Chinese Artillery, not North Korean. Sorry, my mistake. Apparently those are Chinese characters in the background. Thanks Danger Zone for the correction.

A photo in the NK AAA article I recently blogged about show AKs mounted on artillery barrels. The theories on MilitaryPhotos.net are that they could be:

• Crude Sights
• Used to fire tracers
• Used to fire bullets during training instead of artillery rounds to save cost.

The only other explanation I can think of is that they are just stowed away up there. Although I don’t see how the operators could climb up a hot barrel to fetch it during combat.

Anyone know what they are really there for?

Planeman has written a fascinating article, “Bluffer’s guide: Fortress North Korea”, about North Korean AAA (Anti-Aircraft Artillery). It has has lots of 3D diagrams and google earth satellite photos. It is well worth reading.

AAA Coverage of Pyongyang

It is a classic example of how the internet enables the use unclassified information to create detailed reports on topics normally only accessible by intelligence personal.

Read it here.