Which country has the most special operations forces?
For those of you who don’t subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you’re missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works. The question I’d like to highlight this week is: Which country has the most special operations forces? a) Russia b) North Korea ...
For those of you who don't subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you're missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works.
For those of you who don’t subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you’re missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works.
The question I’d like to highlight this week is:
Which country has the most special operations forces?
a) Russia b) North Korea c) Israel
Answer after the jump…
Answer:
B, North Korea.
Increasingly unable to maintain and fuel its aging tanks and other equipment — and shocked at how easily the United States destroyed Iraq’s tanks — North Korea has concluded that it can’t win a conventional war, according to U.S. and South Korean military officials, the Washington Post recently reported. Thus, the country has rapidly increased its special operations forces to at least 80,000, far more than even the United States’ 51,000.
Frighteningly, North Korean special operations forces are learning lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan: They are reportedly being trained in low-cost, low-tech terrorist methods refined by insurgents there, including building improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs. The North Korean special forces’ more traditional skills include throwing knives, martial arts, car theft, using spoons and forks as weapons, and sprinting up hills wearing backpacks containing 60 pounds of rocks and sand.
The last time North Korean commandos raided the South was 41 years ago, but South Koreans certainly aren’t being complacent in the face of the North’s new terrorist-inspired skills. Above, heavily loaded South Korean special forces ski down a hill during a drill on Jan. 8 in Pyeongchang.
For more questions about how the world works, check out the rest of the FP Quiz.
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