Communist Partisans

[vacollector]

Did the North Koreans ever train and command partisan units in South Korea??

[tredhed2]

That would be a difficult question to answer.

There were actually two types of NK partisan groups prior to the war - pro- and anti-communist. The numbers of both groups of NK partisan groups grew rapidly in 1947-48and came to fruition in the early part of the war. The NK use of partisans during the early months of the war (hiding out in retreating civilian groups, ambushes of ROK/UN Forces, etc.) led to the US Army utilizing Ranger Companies and gave rise to UNPFK/UNPIK/CCRAK, which trained ROKs and NK defectors. UNPFK/UNPIK/CCRAK conducted their own "behind the lines" missions, similar the OSS in WW 2. Some of the anti-communist partisan groups attacked local communist party members, the police, and officials which had repressed them pre-war. Those were the NK partisans that UNPFK/UNPIK reached out to.

Another reason your question may be difficult to answer is the constant ebb and flow of the battlefield in the early months - Seoul was both captured by NK and liberated by UN Forces several times in the opening months.

NK was effectively knocked out of the war by late September, and after that, UN Forces mainly faced CCF.

Are you asking if the NK trained their own partisans in the South while the war was ongoing? I have never seen any documentation to that effect. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just have not seen any documentation.

Would like to see someone answer, for certain.

[vacollector]

With the PLA entrance into the war 1950, did pockets of NK troops wait out the UN occupation in hopes of linking up with the Chinese? What was left of the NK Army by the time China entered the war???

[tredhed2]

Sorry, can't answer about N.K. military strategy.

[Michael Page]

With the PLA entrance into the war 1950, did pockets of NK troops wait out the UN occupation in hopes of linking up with the Chinese? What was left of the NK Army by the time China entered the war???

There were bands of NK soldiers fighting as partisans, after their units had been destroyed. Also IIRC the NK army fought on until the end of the war alongside the Chinese.

[vacollector]

I had heard about NK Partisan groups in the book Ice, Fire and Blood. Like previously stated they hang around in the Korean hills unit that linked up with the PLA. Any books you would recommend on this subject??