칼자루를칼자루를 잡다잡다

Holding a sword by the hilt.

Briefing Tent, Icheon, November 19th, 1951

Minister of Defense and Chief Commander of the Armed Forces (in theory) Choe Yong-gon bustled into the conference tent, his aides carrying the requested papers on army organization structure, commanders, and the proposed reorganization of the forces.

Behind the table, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky sat conversing with Russian aides. A Soviet Korean translator stood close at hand - she was the best the Korean People's Army had, which was needed for Malinovsky's rapid questions and string of orders that he regularly issued. In that way, he had immediately ordered the reorganization of the Korean People's Army as soon as his chiefship of the military council was approved.

The rest of the council - including Minister of Defense Choe Yong-gon - had little room to protest. The chairman also sat on the council, but he had been absent for much of the war - back in Pyongyang, theoretically organizing the war from afar, but in reality fretting over air defense on a regular basis, asking continually for more pilots, more planes, more AA guns, more radars - anything to keep the American bombers from blowing his magnificent cities away.

Marshal Malinovsky looked at the papers as they were spread in front of him, picking one up and examining it. He said something offhanded - Choe looked to the comrade translator, who glanced at her charge as if asking approval then back at the Chief Commander.

"He says the translation is poor."

The Chief Commander had to hold his tongue.

"Very well," Marshal Malinovsky said after a moment. "This will do."

Thus the Korean People's Army was reorganized. Three Armies were created, each with a standard allotment of two corps containing two divisions and an armoured regiment each. Marshal Malinovsky had chafed at the haphazard and unbalanced arrangement of the Corps of the army when he had arrived - some were huge, some were small, and units were piled onto each other pell-mell. Constant reorganizations and merging of units to make up numbers had sapped the units strength. Marshal Malinovsky had been unequivocally opinionated that this was the reason that the assault on Busan had failed in the way it did. Each Army also hosted a number of separate formations, into which many of the regimental units the army had created as it rapidly expanded were placed. A Red Guard Motor Division was formed out of the remnants of the motorized infantry brigades that had been devastated in the heavy fighting, as part of the Seoul Red Guards Corps in II KPA.

The officer ranks, also a disorganized mess when the army went to war, were standardized. The Marshal had almost insisted on the Russian names for ranks too, but had been persuaded in a late night counsel with General Kang Gon and Chief Commander Choe Yong-gon to allow the Korean names to stay.

It was well-known within officer circles that General Kang-gon had removed language creating the role of Marshal (Wonsu) and Vice Marshal (Chasu), roles which would clearly be allocated to Kim Il-Sung and Choe Yong-gon. Some said this was out of jealousy, some out of necessity - and some said it would be to prevent Choe Yong-gon from formally outranking him, since since the Chief Commander position was somewhat ad-hoc.

The ordering of the ranks and their standardization echoed down the ranks - many receiving new ranks and receiving new assignments. Several of the Guerilla faction, feeling deserving of the Senior Polkovnik and General-Polkovnik ranks, were denied, sending bitterness and resentment for the "Russian Order" (로서아 순서) throughout the KPA.

To be continued...