III Army Corps

Upon reorganization of the North Korean III Corps in the Kanggye Area during late fall of 1950, an artillery regiment constituted the corps artillery reserve. This regiment was equipped with a mixture of artillery pieces, including, according to one source, three 122mm M-1938 howitzers, seven medium-caliber antitank guns and 10 45mm antitank guns; these weapons had presumably been salvaged from the North Korean Army's defeat in the south. Since the artillery regiment, being roadbound, lagged, behind the foot troops in the movement from the reorganization site to the front, the III Corps was committed in the P'yongch'ang Sector during February 1951 without support from its artillery reserve.

From thet time until the present, information regarding the corps' artillery regiment has been scattered and highly fragmentary. Several references indicate that during the spring of this year, elements of the III Corps, including possibly the corps artillery regiment, underwent artillery training in the Inje Area. In late spring, according to an unconfirmed though seemingly well-informed source, the III Corps is supposed to have received a full, complement of artillery weapons for each of its subordinate. divisions. Only a portion of these weapons was issued to the divisions, while the bulk was held in reserve et a corps artillery training center in the vicinity of Hoeyang, where artillery units from each division of the corps were sent in relays for an intensive training course. This account suggests that the corps artillery reserve may have been augmented at this time by the, transfer to corps on a permanent basis of some of the divisional artillery units. The corps artillery section, according the same source, was of normal structure and included Colonel Han Kuk Chin, the chief of staff of the section, a tactical planning section under Lieutenant Colonel Lee-Chi-Chung and a reconnaissance section under Major LX-Kye-Lim.

No further information is available on the artillery potential of III Corps until the early part of September, when prisoners from the 45th Division indicated that the corps artillery reserve consisted of an artillery regiment which supported their division in a limited counterattack, against an objective in the Ipo-ri Sector. The regiment seems to have been equipped with around 12 76mm field guns and an undetermined number of larger pieces. The corps was to receive an additional 100 artillery pieces "in the near future." Most sources concur that the ammunition supply problem had largely been solved in the III Corps by this time and that ample quantities of ammunition for corps as well as division artillery weapons had been stockpiled in the corps ammunition dump. This is illustrated by the fact that the corps artillery regiment apparently was able to fire between 1,000 and 2,000 rounds of preparatory fire in support of the 45th Division. While it is probable, therefore, that the North Korean III Corps currently has an artillery reserve of regimental strength, the composition and equipment of that reserve has not been definitely determined although indications are that it is not yet fully equipped. The combat effectiveness of that reserve, in spite of an adequate ammunition supply and protracted periocl of training must remain dcubtful since it is lacking in combat experience.