Black Hawks Near North Korea Show Risk in U.S. Command Shift
On orders from a U.S. instructor, Corporal Kim Jong Chan leaps out of a Black Hawk helicopter hovering near the world’s most fortified border. The South Korean soldier rappels 90 feet down, rehearsing for the day he may have to go behind North Korean lines in the event of a war.
“It’s not often that South Koreans get the chance to participate in one of the hardest training courses of the world’s most powerful army,” Kim said before completing the U.S. Air Assault School training last month at Camp Casey, 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. “We hold our own drills, but the U.S. definitely offers better equipment and training.”
Soldiers like Kim will lead front line defenses against any North Korean attack for the first time in six decades, after the U.S. hands to South Korea wartime control of its own troops in 2015. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has stoked tensions by testing an atomic device, threatening a nuclear strike against the U.S., and declaring a “state of war.”
South Korean President Park Geun Hye will have to shoulder added defense funding to secure the border at a time when economic growth is slowing and welfare demands are escalating. Military proficiency may also be an issue: Kim was the only one of nine South Korea soldiers who passed the air assault course.
More: Black Hawks Near North Korea Show Risk in U.S. Command Shift - Bloomberg