North Korea’s Special Forces Showcase Incredible Martial Arts Skills: What You Need to Know

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By Moon Young-gyu, Herald Economy — North Korea’s special operations forces staged martial-arts and breaking demonstrations that resembled strongman feats, including striking their arms with axes, state media footage shows.

Korean Central Television released video saying combined special-operations units “competitively demonstrated flawless marksmanship and their full range of military-technical and physical capabilities,” and it showed training and demonstrations performed before Kim Jong Un.

In the footage, troopers bared their torsos, slammed axes against their arms to break roof tiles and grabbed blades with bare hands in stunts that resembled feats of strength.

They also used abdominal strength to deflect pickaxes and axes, smashed stone slabs placed on their backs with hammers, and broke bricks with their heads — demonstrations ordinary people cannot replicate.

Beyond those physical displays, the program showed shooting drills with troops wearing night-vision gear and a women’s unit performing dagger-combat techniques.

The footage also showed Kim Jong Un clapping and smiling broadly.

Defense Minister No Kwang-chol and Gen. Ri Yong-gil, chief of the General Staff, accompanied him. The broadcast offered no official comment, but it also appeared to capture Kim Yo Jong, the Workers’ Party’s head of the General Affairs Department, attending.

Analysts say the drills were intended to showcase the military’s loyalty and combat readiness at home and abroad and to reinforce regime cohesion. They note the events highlighted female soldiers’ roles to bolster the “arming the whole nation” policy and likely served message-management purposes tied to recent public appearances by Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Ju-ae.

KCTV quoted Kim as expressing “great satisfaction with their absolute might and unmatched valor,” and said he urged troops to “deeply understand the principle that sweating a lot in training reduces bleeding in battle.”