NationStates Jolt Archive

The Choson People's Republic of Dra-pol
A Visitor's Handbook
Seoul, 2008

The natives call their home The Land of Morning Calm, and to the outside world it seems anything but. A visit to the Choson People's Republic will reveal the truth to any open-minded guest.

Dra-pol is infamous as the world's most military society and, after fighting off invasions from some of history's most formidable empires, it has become renowned as perhaps the most defiant and unbreakable nation on earth.

This is the story and state of the modern CPRD.

Geography

Located on the Korean peninsula, the CPRD extends from borders with the People's Republic of Spyr in the north to a heavily militarised boundary with the Republic of Korea in the south. This southern border lies to-day some way further down the peninsula than was recently the case, beginning in the west just south of Suwon, and sweeping down to the border town of Andong in the east. The twin cities of Hamhung and Hungnam, situated far north on the east coast, are under a foreign mandate and ringed by considerable static fortification against the People’s Republic from which the land was forcibly stolen.

A fairly mountainous nation, food production is a major concern for once self-reliant Dra-pol, which lost superior southern agricultural lands when forcibly divided by foreign powers in 1945 and then lost the best of what remained when territory was once again cut from the CPRD in the 1980s and urbanised in the once productive the Hamhung-Hungnam region.

Note-
Korea Bay, in the north of the western Yellow Sea, is closed to foreign shipping, its waters hosting only Drapoel and Spyrian vessels. This is especially important since the repeated use of these Asian waters by outsiders bent on disrupting vital commerce and sabotaging diplomatic relationships.

Capital city-
Da’Khiem; Northeast of Pyongyang, no official standing population

Other major cities-
Seoul; largest city in the CPRD
Kanggye; most productive industrial city and major transit point near Spyrian border
Paegam; “the Forbidden City” old royal capital and site of cultural significance
Wonsan; headquarters of the East Sea Fleet
Nampho; headquarters of the Yellow Sea Fleet
Haeju; major port and airport and a centre for the nation’s international trade
Pyongyang; largest city in the north
Hotanang; new city rising between Da'Khiem and the foreign enclave
Suwon; major military centre close to border
Chuncheon; major crossroads for goods and military concerns in the south
Andong; (northern half), divided border town straddling strategic river

Climate

Temperate with rainfall concentrated in summer.

Natural hazards

Late spring droughts often followed by severe flooding; occasional typhoons during early autumn.

Terrain

Mostly hills and mountains separated by deep, narrow valleys; coastal plains wide in west, discontinuous in east, heavily forested throughout.

Elevation extremes

Lowest point Sea of Japan 0 m, highest point Paektu-san 2,744 m.

Natural resources

Coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower potential.

Economy

The Choson People’s Republic of Dra-pol has, through Kurosite Wisdom, become in a few short years an industrial powerhouse to be admired, and this despite the loss of so much territory and the decimation of cities such as Kosong and Pyongyang. However, much of its productivity is consumed by simply trying to import food enough to support its hard working people while they are denied so much of their finest farmland, and consumer economies refuse to take Drapoel goods at a fair price thanks to political propaganda.

Dra-pol’s tightly state-controlled and nationalised economy came to rely on collective agriculture and industry during the nation’s utter isolation. Unwelcome reintroduction to the global market –in which Dra-pol was also some fifty years out of date- brought about a dramatic economic collapse only worsened by the accompanying war. Since then the economy learned to cope surprisingly well, Da'Khiem securing limited export markets and major foreign aid (mainly from Lyong, the Soviet Commonwealth, and the Armandian Combine). The war industry provoked a sharp rise in economic activity, and the industrialisation of Kanggye.

However, inability to conclude the series of defence and reunification wars, a painful naval blockade enforced by the republic’s Christian attackers, and Da'Khiem’s refusal to further limited urbanisation and industrialisation limited the extent of progress, which has remained primarily confined to the military-industrial complex.

Director Hotan's continued centrally-driven Cholima Progress balanced with Secretary Kim's gradual embrace of Strainist-influenced market-socialist reforms in some cities such as Seoul and Hotanang mean that gradual growth is now being sustained, but the continued focus on national and revolutionary defence limits investment in other sectors. Strainist advice has been invaluable in improving productivity in both industry and agriculture, but Da'Khiem remains opposed to excessive changes that it distrusts as decadent or western in nature.

GDP purchasing power parity
US$117.5bln

GDP per capita
US$2,500

GDP growth rate
0.3%

Unemployment rate
Nil (official)

Economic aid recipient
US$?

Currency
Yako

Industries
Military products, machine building, space launches, electric power, chemicals; mining (coal, iron ore, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious metals), metallurgy; textiles, food processing

Electricity production
Fossil fuel- 29% hydro 34% nuclear 37%
Yes, our Kurosite Progress is every bit the relentless entity of less moral consumer cultures, but it works with great respect for the ancient land upon which it builds. The ratio of hydroelectric and nuclear power used to generate electricity has increased constantly at the expense of dirty and elsewhere ill-got fossil fuels.

Agricultural products
Rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, pulses, yams, cattle, pigs, pork, eggs, poultry.

Export commodities
Minerals, metallurgical products, armaments, mechanical equipment, bicycles, textiles, timber, nuclear technologies, rocketry technology.

Import commodities
Oil and fuels, grains and foodstuffs, medical equipment and drugs

Major trade partners
PR Spyr, DR Beddgelert

Xia means perfection, and guo means nation.

Loyalists of the Zhang family instigated a series of movements in the former state of Xiaguo in the past few years. The current state of the unified government was weakened politically over the years and Xiaguo began to grow economically and politically.

Geography

Xiaguo is located in present day Manchuria, parts of Eastern Mongolia and borders Dra-Pol. Xiaguo is rich in oil fields, metals, and agriculture.

Xiaguo has mountains to it's South, and mostly plains westward and northward. The Yellow Sea is located just South-West of the country.


Capital city-
Taiping; Current Day Shenyang, 4,000,000+
(Rebirth of the Evangelical Movement) Xiaguo's largest metropolis.

Other major cities-
Chunjing; 3,000,000+ most modernistic city
Tianhui; 2,500,000, most industrialized city
Guihua; 2,200,000, most beautiful city
Dalian; 2,000,000, Biggest Port in Xiaguo, Headquarters of the Beiyang Fleets
Harbin; 1,100,000, International City
Shenting; 1,030,000 Religious center
Yingpu; 750,000 Biggest collection of suburban cities.
Min'an; 500,000+, fastest growing city.
Yul'Paekjah; 250,000, Largest Korean Population and top manufacturing
Ulubakai; 200,000, Largest Mongolian population, top agricultural area
Meiyan; 60,000 Historic city of the founding of Unified China under Zhang, Li, Yeh.

A Long History

Origins

According to state funded research literature the Drapoel people arose millennia ago from the mountain of Paektusan -Korea's largest- a small and dark skinned people created to protect and develop the Korean peninsula to the utopian condition sure to be brought on by Kurosite Thinking.

During the murky infant centuries of this history there came many other races, less pure and driven than the Drapoel. These “Wider Asians” are thought by Republican scholars to have constituted the subject peoples of the eventual Choson Empire, which was of course a civilisation of Drapoel construction. This empire certainly encompassed the entirety of the peninsula, and is pivotal to the modern Drapoel affinity with the south.

Several thousand years of abject isolation were permeated only by a steady flow of thwarted invasions in which Japanese, Mongol, Russian, and Chinese empires saw their armies slaughtered in the mountains of Korea, picked apart by a private and ruthless warrior class. Forts would periodically be erected or ports established by foreign powers, even by westerners come the C19th, but each would ultimately fall to Dra-pol’s royal armies or else be razed in furious peasant revolts. Never would outsiders be allowed to penetrate the northern heartland, barred as they were from even setting eyes upon mother Paektusan or father Paegam’s Forbidden City.

Rumblings of change

The twentieth century brought the first major changes in Korean life for untold centuries, and it brought them from the outside world Dra-pol so rightly feared. The Russo-Japanese War and its aftermath saw Imperial Japanese forces arriving again on the peninsula, and the limp response of a young Drapoel Emperor Wiman did almost as much to incite disquiet as had the incursions themselves. It was left primarily to local populations to resist Japanese colonisation, and the combination of Japanese influence and this increased local self-sufficiency further weakened the Choson Empire. It is not known precisely why the state’s response was so uncharacteristically mild and uncoordinated. It has variously been suggested that internal power-politics in young Wiman’s government were to blame, that the emperor himself was simply an idiot, or that it is just that the time was right for revolutionary progress.

Revolution

In 1931, with Japanese expansionism picking-up pace along southern shores, a man known only as brother Sulo took to the hills with a partisan force consisting of desperate peasants and disconcerted warriors tired of Wiman’s impotence. The Suloists, as they came to be known, after contact with Maoist forces across the Yalu, spread communistic propaganda and waged guerrilla war against every outpost of Wiman’s dynastic rule. Civil war raged for seven years, during which time Maoist and Suloist forces reputedly co-operated against the Japanese invaders of Korea and China.

By 1938 Wiman’s forces had been finally vanquished, in the north by Sulo, and in the south by Japan, and Sulo had moved the capital from Paegam to Da’Khiem, enacting a deadly policy of forced ruralisation in the process. The fight for Korea went on as Suloist forces continued to battle the Japanese in the south, acquiring from them Dra-pol’s first aircraft and automatic fire arms.

It may not be a stretch to call this fight one of history’s most vicious and horrid, with Imperial Japanese infamy pitted against the revolutionary and nationalist fury of the ill-understood Drapoel under cruel Sulo. The bloody quagmire was of course a stalemate, broken only by Japan’s surrender in World War II, which brought western influence to the territories of that fallen empire. Southern Korea was included in this envelope as paranoid capitalists sought to establish military bases on the doorsteps of Mao and Stalin. No consideration was given to the facts of Drapoel sovereignty, of Mao’s interest only in the revolutionary progress of China, or of Stalin’s introspective and self-interested power politics, and the Quinntonians found enemies where none previously existed.

Retreat

In the division of Korea, Sulo apparently blamed the “wider Asian” population of the peninsula for failing to properly support the revolution, and began to destroy them in the north. This hastened the ethnic divide in Korea as paler Koreans fled for the capitalist south, and darker people claiming “original descent” filtered north, inflated by Suloist histories that declared them founders of the Choson Empire and masters of Korea.

In 1950 the Drapoel Suloists attempted to assert their historic rights and complete their revolution by storming across the demilitarised zone that had been established through their peninsula’s waist, and laying the new Republic of Korea Army to ruin. They were evidently surprised by the reaction of Quinntonia and the United Nations, failing to grasp the significance of cold war balances in the region. The Drapoel have yet to forgive the outside world for interfering in their revolution, or even to forgive the Russians for what is seen as a weak Stalin’s cowardly abandonment of the revolution on his doorstep. Chinese sacrifice by contrast served to strengthen ties between that nation and the CPRD, as begun in the ‘30s when Sulo was reputed to have met with Mao to plan the defeat of their personal and common enemies.

Though the People's Army had completely out-matched the ROKA and come within miles of crushing multi-national forces, the conflict ended again in stalemate after Quinntonian bombing killed hundreds of thousands of Drapoel and ruined what little remained of their industry after Suloist ruralisations.

After the aborted effort to reunify Korea and to complete the revolution, the CPRD fell into an isolation familiar to the people, and Sulo actually taught that the outside world had destroyed itself in an apocalyptic conflict (combining the Second World War with the so called Korean or Quinntonian War). His teaching demanded a return to Dra-pol’s origins as a new People’s Choson Empire was to be raised, and the ruthless Hong Juk -or Red Bamboo- enforced the tortuous implementation of this dream.

Renewed contact

When, in the 1980s, Quinntonian soldiers responded to the distress call of a refugee vessel lost when it wandered close to the Drapoel coast, they would stumble ashore to be greeted by an agrarian state peopled by frightened comrades who would think them spirits from the destroyed outer world.

When a terrified teenage girl named Yasuki Jing squeezed the trigger of her collective’s sixty year old Japanese bolt-action rifle, sending a 7.7mm bullet into the throat of an approaching Quinntonian soldier, an epic clash of cultures was realised with the beginning of The Three Day War. The Quinntonians would call it Kurosian’s Rage, naming it for Director Kurosian I, Sulo’s more wise successor as premier of the revolutionary state. The conflict saw Da’Khiem, Dra-pol’s only significant city, flattened, and Quinntonian Dra-pol’s twin cities of Hamhung and Hungnam established where the imperialist Crusaders came ashore and robbed the CPRD of its best remaining agricultural lands.

The thousands that fell in those three short days were as nothing compared to the more than three million deaths resulting from the Republic’s brave attempt to liberate Hamhung, which erupted into what Kurosian I called The Crusader War. This saw a coalition comprised primarily of Christian states such as Germany rally around the Quinntonians in an ill-informed and uncoordinated effort to over-throw the popular Revolutionary regime. It saw barefaced land-grabs continue with the establishment of German Dra-pol and futile aggression in the blockading by naval assets of a nation that did not even conduct overseas trade. By the same token, Dra-pol’s isolation and inexperience of the modern world lead to the sacrificing of countless soldiers against the Hamhung perimeter, as human wave assaults desperately and courageously probed the developed-world’s combined forces for a weakness that would not reveal itself.

The rise of Hotan

It was during this conflict, however, that one comrade Secretary Hotan was first encountered by the outside world. Hotan, Secretary of the Korean Communist Party, would command a Red Bamboo Assault Division in the field, capturing an entire German airborne formation, mercifully releasing it to US custody, and over-running German Dra-pol to leave the Quinntonians isolated and force an end to open efforts against the Republican government.

Despite Hotan's great and underserved mercy, and Kurosian I's surrender of his own son -accused of war crimes- to Quinntonian authorities in the pursuit of peace, the enemies continued to seek the erradication of a culture older than their beloved God, presumably because it offended their very recent and naive concept of civilisation.

Dra-pol’s terror and isolation would only be increased, however, by the following underhanded persistence against its leadership. Director Kurosian I would be assassinated while on a state visit to China, and an attempt would be made on Hotan’s life at the same time. Hotan survived, slaying all three of his western attackers despite serious injuries, and accused the United States of being behind both attacks.

The Great Victory

Hotan became after Kurosian's death both Secretary of the Party and Director of the Republic, making him arguably the most powerful man in Korean history. He wielded this power to carry out a great Kurosite Juche advance that he called Cholima Progress in reference to Korea's mythical Pegasus-like winged horse. This was designed to repair the regression of the Suloist years, and to pursue the reunification of the Korean peninsula. The Cholima Struggle industrialised Dra-pol to an unprecedented degree, and the second attempt to reunify north and south through the Reunification War brought Seoul and many other cities into the CPRD before more Quinntonian bombing on the west coast and Hindustani ground troops at Andong halted the People's Army once again... this time, however, they would prove unable to push it back north.

The Wisest Plan

Dra-pol was most recently over-taken by an apparent Neo-Suloist coup attempt lead by Kurosian's second son, the half-blood Koshiako, as wretched a creature as ever there was. Madame Kurosian's western blood, clearly, did not mix well with the blood of original descent, and the mistake would prove unnatural.

The world watched as reports escaped Dra-pol detailing Neo-Suloist atrocities and the collapse of Hotanite industry. Hotan escaped to Lyong and his country seemed to be in regression. Eventually, with Spyrian help, The Wisest Director, as he is known, returned at the head of a loyal Kurosite army as Putin-era Russian mercenaries made a diversory landing. The Kuro Student Defence League and Working Women's Home Brigade rose in support of Hotan, and the Neo-Suloists were destroyed. But Hotan also made sure that few Russians would escape, and to this day the world is largely ignorant of their deliberate sacrifice to Hotan's epic plan.

After restoring order, Hotan proclaimed that Dra-pol was now undeniably a poor country. He secured massive Strainist technical assistance and Armandian fuel aid before disappearing, leading to rumour of his suicide. Kim Hyun-ki was approved as Secretary of the KCP, replacing Hotan in that role, though no new Director was installed. Kim was presented as a reformist, accepting Strainist market-socialist influence and down-sizing the Unified People's Army as he spoke of reconcilliation with the south and established new local electoral proceedures.

Dra-pol appeared to be softening and weakening, and the bitter and cowardly United States once again struck in underhanded fashion. Moulding the imprisoned Kurosian II, Kurosian I's first son, in their image and supporting insurrection within the Choson People's Republic they hoped to take advantage of Dra-pol's misfortune and destroy Kurosite Thinking once and for all.

For the thousandth time Dra-pol's enemies had grossly underestimated the Choson wildcat. Hotan, as it is only now becoming apparent, was alive and well in Sithin, PR Spyr, and very much playing the chords to which both the KCP and USQ danced, the latter far less knowing than its diminutive partner. It even appears that the extent of the damage rought by the Neo-Suloists was drastically over-stated and that Hotan's admission of Drapoel poverty was a political ploy, so too his disappearance and the rise of a seemingly reformist Secretary Kim.

The speed and scale of the Drapoel security forces' reaction to the initiation of the Quinntonian-backed plot against Da'Khiem suggests that the Republic is strong as ever and that Hotan always expected Kurosian II's return. It is even suggested in some circles that the entire Neo-Suloist episode was orchastrated by Hotan in a manner akin to the improbable conspiracy theory claiming that the Sino-Soviet border conflict was a ploy. Certainly Kurosite Thinking and Hotan's own reputation have been reinforced in Dra-pol, and Da'Khiem has secured massive foreign aid since the conflict while also provoking Kurosian II to show his hand and tempting the United States to once again act as aggressor, this time during a period of perilous global instability.

Everything, claims Hotan, that has transpired has done so according to his design.

The Modern Situation

At this moment in time the CPRD is more industrious than it has ever been. It’s titanic forces face enemies in Quinntonian Dra-pol and others arrayed in what remains of the capitalist south, and there can be little doubting Hotan’s commitment to the on going revolution and the reunification of his ancient homeland even as the British Empire declares war.

After so many thousands of years, the shamefully misrepresented Land of Morning Calm can proudly state that –in spite of its own repeated victimisation- it has not once engaged in a war of aggression against foreign peoples nor invaded a foreign land. We wonder as British fleets approach, Quinntonians raise more tower blocks atop our finest farmland, and the reactionaries police our southern shores, what other nation can say the same?

Demographics

Population

47 million administered; over 72 million claimed

Note-

Da'Khiem claims to be the legitimate authority on the Korean peninsula and as such considers enclave and RoK residents to be properly Drapoel citizens.

Life expectancy at birth

Male 70 years, female 74 years

Nationality

Drapoel official, Korean common

Ethnic Groups

Drapoel original descent approximately 70%, Drapoel wider-Asian approximately 30%

Note-

The ethnic composition of Dra-pol is sometimes considered to be homogeneous as some foreign scholars see physical differences between northern and southern majorities as merely environmental and likely to erode within one or two generations of like living conditions. There are tiny ethnic Chinese and Spyrian minorities ammounting to less than 1% of the total population.

Languages

Drapoel, derivative dialect of Korean

Defence

The Choson People's Republic has long been earth's most militarised nation. Warrior traditions and obligations reaching back into pre-history remain integral to society, and the primary focus of state media is revolutionary defence propaganda. In the Red Bamboo and Banat Dra-pol maintains probably the world's largest special forces.

Unified People's Army

Comprised of 2.45 million men and women aged 17-44 and 17-32 respectively. Such a huge force must still contain a large proportion of straight-leg infantry, but the UPA’s mechanised strength is none the less undeniably great.

The Red Bamboo

Briefly reorganised as the Banat Combat Corps, the Hong Juk once again serves the nation as its elite force, and comprises 140,000 persons, mainly men in their twenties and thirties. These soldiers are chosen for their exceptional loyalty, commitment, and ability. The corps trains for amphibious, airborne, mechanised, and tunnel warfare and is highly proficient in infiltration tactics. The force is exceptionally well armed and supported, fanatically motivated, and highly experienced in over half a dozen major conflicts in defence of Dra-pol since the Republic's birth in the 1930s.

The Red Bamboocontrols many of Dra-pol's heavy rocketry and short-range ballistic missiles.

Banat

[Pending, estimated effective strength 60,000]

People’s Rear Defence Organisation

3.4 million persons, men and women aged 17-44 and 17-32 respectively, who are not part of the Unified People’s Army or primary rear-area military infrastructure.
The UPA supervises the PRDO, which trains for around forty days a year. The PRDO is active in contingencies, units often serving under UPA or Banat officers, and is supposed to be capable of limited offensive operations on a local scale and for a limited time. UPA mechanised elements may be attached to PRDO formations. This organisation constitutes the core of the nation’s reserves and would be tasked with fairly heavy combat operations in the event of invasion, especially if the UPA was seriously deployed to the south. Much of the light equipment used by UPA formations is also available to the PRDO.

Kuro Student Defence League

2.4 million 14-16yr old students across the Republic drill each Sunday for five hours (260hrs a year), and also benefit from variably scheduled off-campus drills totalling 340 further yearly hours. In peace the KSDL is organised by Local Civil Defence Directoratures, and in contingencies is answerable to the Unified People’s Army.

Working Women’s Home Brigade

Around 200,000 unmarried women aged 17-32 who are not part of the PRDO train for up to forty days a year to serve in the Brigade. The Brigade is primarily concerned with operating air defence machineguns on ridges and over valleys around sensitive areas. They provide rotational skeleton crews for many positions during peace time, meaning that a fairly high state of readiness against imperialism is maintained off duty.

-The Yasuki Jing Medal for Bravery and Vigilance is applicable to the KSDL and WWHB.

United Worker’s Militia

The Militia is formed by 8 million older men aged 45-60, men aged 17-44 who are not part of the PRDO or UPA, and unmarried women aged 17-32 who are not part of the PRDO, UPA, or WWHB. This unit is secondary to the PRDO and its strengths will lie in the intimidation factor provided by such a massive mobilisation and in harassing invaders across any part of the country without relent. The UWM is incapable of offensive operation, as were all branches of Republican military strength until the Crusader invasions. Its equipment tends to be ex-UPA and usually consists of captured enemy weaponry, including much dating back to the Japanese occupation that ended more than sixty years ago.

People's Army Air Force

The PAAF's strength is about 220,000 men and women operating 3,250 airframes.

Bombers

160x Il-28 Beagle

Fighters

200x K-3 Hyper Shinden midget attack fighters
200x MiG-19P/PM
400x MiG-21
112x IAG-95 Hobgoblin
80x IAG-101 Redcap

Attackers

96x KJ-1 Feda Kwong
80x IAG-40 Boglin

Transports

6x Il-76 Candid
12x L2D4D
400x An-2

Helicopters

70x IAG-330 mutli-role/gunships
20x Mi-14
280x Mi-2 Hoplite
96x Mi-4 Hound
174x IAG-316

Trainers

24x IAG-99 Soim
60x Shinden Jetto
360x [prop]

Air Defence Command

ADC staff are drawn primarily from the PAAF with support from the UPA, Red Bamboo, Banat, and WWHB.

S-200/SA-5 Gammon batteries give 255km range air defence from the Republic’s coasts and borders against large aircraft such as AWACS and heavy bombers.

S-75 Dvina/SA-2 SAM regiments, usually in regiments of three batteries are deployed in rings to defend towns and important facilities at Pyongyang, Seoul, Najin, Kanggye, Da’Khiem, Namp’o, Wonsan, Haeju, Inch’on, Suwon, Hotanang, Chuncheon, Andong, and Kangung.

DRAR-19 SAM launchers represent Dra-pol's movement into domestic design of surface-to-air defence missiles, some mounted on Type-192 APCs, trucks, or trailers. The effectiveness of these ad hoc systems is in dispute.

MANPADS; D-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs; static, truck-mounted, and towed 100mm, 75mm, 47mm, 30mm, and 14.5mm Anti-Aircraft Artillery guns all add to the defensive grid, which in terms of AAA density is the strongest in world history.

People's Coast Guard

PCG strength is at least 90,000 personnel, making it larger than most navies. Though naturally considered a brown water force the Coast Guard operates an impressive array of light warships, both imported and domestic.

Submarines

52x Hound Class SSK
32x Sang-O Class SSK
20x Bap Class SSK

Frigates & Corvettes

4x Kurosian I Class Light Patrol Frigates
1x Soho Class Experimental Catamaran Frigate
14x Sariwon Class Corvettes

Missile & Torpedo Boats

32x Mogi Class Small Missile Craft
54x Soju (Osa-I) Class Missile Craft
230x Kae Class Small Torpedo Boats

Patrol Boats & Assault Support Boats

95X Tiburon Class Patrol Boats
160x Three Day Class Assault-Support Boats

Assault & Landing Craft

270x Cholima Class Hovercraft
400x Choson Class LCP
20x Hungnam Class LCU
56x Inch'on Class LCU

Mine Countermeasures Vessels

46x Yukto Class Minesweepers

Auxiliaries

2x Kowan Class Submarine Rescue Ship

Total military strength

Common individual and crew-served armaments.

Type D-KPV heavy machinegun in 14.5x114mm

Considerably more powerful than the widespread .50” machineguns of the west, these are employed as support weapons and with radar command as anti-aircraft guns.

Type D-92 medium machinegun in 7.7x58mmD

A relatively low rate of fire gives this strong, reliable weapon a characteristic woodpecker-like report. These guns are often carried by the use of two bearer-poles fed through eyes on the tripod, allowing the mount and gun to be transported quickly and in one unit. Still quite similar to the Tashio weapon brought by Japanese invaders some decades ago, and, owing to low rate of fire, not much use as anti-aircraft tools.

Type D-99 light machinegun in 6.5mmD

Somewhat out-dated but none the less effective and unlikely to be replaced soon. Various proposals for a squad version of the Type D-86 rifle displaying greater commonality with the service rifle than does the Type D-99 LMG have failed to achieve much more than the existing weapon.

Type D-99* sniper rifle in 7.7x58mmD

A bolt action rifle of old design but powerful cartridge and proven effectiveness. Usually fitted with a low-power scope.

Type D-86 assault rifle in 6.5mmD

The PA’s standard assault rifle, replacing the old Type D-99 bolt-action rifle. The Type D-86 is a bullpup design based on the AK action and chambering an intermediate 6.5mm round. It is usually poorly finished but tends to be very accurate in single fire mode if far less so in fully automatic operation, and is easily maintained in the field.

D-Type K-50m sub-machinegun in 8x21.5mmD

A distant cousin to the Soviet PPSH, this weapon is compact and light, suiting it to the typically small Drapoel soldier. Useful in close-quarter combat and widely issued to Banat combat units, the main criticism levelled against the D-Type K-50m is –its horrible nomenclature aside- related to the supposedly limited penetration characteristics of the 8mm cartridge. According to the UPA, however, tests have revealed that their ammunition is superior to the old 7.62 short round.

Nambu 14th Year pistol in 8x21.5mmD

An old design issued to Drapoel officers who, in all fairness to the automatic pistol, also tend to carry traditional short-swords. It has been significantly altered in order to accept the slightly different characteristics of the Drapoel round and usually small hand.

Baby Nambu pistol in 7x19.5mmD

Often to be found in the hands of agents deployed over-seas, this is primarily a tool of the Banat. Lately issued in large numbers to domestic security and law enforcement organisations. Has also been reported with a suppresser unit apparently built-in. Serious questions persist about the power of its tiny cartridge.

Type 69-I RPG

Chinese version of the famous Russian RPG-7, favoured in Dra-pol for its impressive range of warheads and the minor improvement offered by its mounting of a bipod and new sight.

Susong-Po ATGM

Native version of the Soviet wire-guided AT-3 Sagger, deployed on Type D-19 light tank and Type-192 APC, Mi-2 and Mi-8 helicopters, and as a manpack. SACLOS guidance. Incapable of engaging at very short range, these are deployed directly behind Type 69-I units.

D-Type-89 40mm Knee-Mortar grenade-launcher

Called mortar this is in truth more a grenade launcher. Deployed en masse during the Crusader War it proved quite effective as squads of fast-moving infantry laid down arcs of fire while concealed by Dra-pol’s rough and forested terrain. Based on the Japanese Type 89 but somewhat more compact.

74mm Type 3 Infantry Mortar

Used wherever a Knee-Mortar is found wanting and often carried on the backs or bicycles of two or three men. Reasonably long range but lacking sophisticated sighting equipment and typically using ammunition of dubious reliability.

Super-Sava MANPAD

Yugoslavian-origin SAM of good performance. There are now literally thousands of these throughout the CPRD’s mountainous countryside, making low level airborne incursion or any of the helicopter activity that so hurt Dra-pol in the Three Day War now little more than suicidal. Many of the weapons built in Dra-pol may be marginally inferior to the originals, actually much evolved Sa-2 Strela, but this has not been confirmed. The weapon is still certainly capable of all-aspect infrared tracking and engagement.

Government

Country name

long form- Choson People’s Republic of Dra-pol
short form- Dra-pol
abbreviation- CPRD

Government type

Authoritarian socialist; one party dictatorship based on philosophies of Sulo, Kurosian I, Hotan. Hamhung/Hungnam under capitalist Christian theocratic domination.

Capital

Da'Khiem

Independence

2nd February 1938- monarchy over-thrown

National holiday

Revolution Day, 2nd February (1938), various birthdays celebrated (Directors Kurosian I, Hotan)

Constitution

Adopted 1931; enacted 1937; revised 1945, 1950, 1952, 2002

Legal system

Subject to whims of Party, Secretary, and Director; influenced by assorted communist and socialist legal theories

Suffrage

15 years of age; universal

Directorative branch

Chief of State- Director Hotan
Secretary of the Communist Party- Kim Hyun-ki

All party members (every citizen being such) are officially able to contribute directly to the political process through locally elected collective-representatives.

Judicial branch

Central People’s Republican Court; judges appointed by the Central Directorature, working from a list of Party-appointees.

Political parties and leaders

Choson People’s Communist Party of Dra-pol, Kim Hyun-ki.

PAAF Aircraft

When it appeared several years after the Three Day War, the KJ-1 Feda-Kwong represented a change in Drapoel military thinking, as the nation had never before deployed a specialised offensive weapon of this sort.

"The noble spirit of Drapoel none-aggression was not sufficient to deter the imperialistic intentions of the Christians and their running dogs" said then-Secretary Hotan, appearing at Factory 5-1-2 in Kanggye for the KJ-1's fly-over. "And so we as a people scorned have no cause or intention to restrain ourselves in future interactions."

KJ-1 Feda-Kwong
(Attack Fighter 1, Winged Fire-Starter; some say it loses a little in the translation..)

Manufacturer- Factory 5-2-3, Pyongyang; Factory 5-1-2, Kanggye (some avionics/weapons)
Crew- One
Weight- 15,000lb empty; 26,240lb maximum take-off
Dimensions- span 9.9m; length 17.1m; height 4.4m
Powerplant- 2x S-4 turbojet at 6,200lb thrust dry and 8,000lb afterburning (each)
Maximum speed- Mach 1.05 at sea level, Mach 1.28 at altitude
Range- 850km normal load, 1,700km with drop-tanks
Ceiling- near 17,000 metres
Armament- 2x 30mm aviation cannon in wing-roots, 75 rounds per gun. 10 stores stations; four under fuselage, six under wings. Fuselage stations for 250kg bombs. Inboard wing stations for 8x57mm rocket-pod or 4x122mm rocket-pod. Centre wing stations for drop tank or 500kg-bomb, or DSJ-1 anti-shipping missile, or DXJ2 ECM pod. Outboard wing stations for DRAR-1 SRAAM.
Avionics and other features- DXT1 fire-control radar, optional DXJ2 ECM jammer and radar warning receiver, countermeasures, onboard CPU, laser ranging sensor, ejector seat, brake-chute.

The DSJ-1 is Dra-pol's first generation anti-shipping missile, and is thought to approximate the performance characteristics of the Chinese C-801 (Ying Ji-8K) on which it may be loosely based. Presumably DaKhiem is not 100% confident of its ability to maintain sufficient imports of the original weapon, or at least feels such an arrangement is uneconomical.

hello, brother, would you be interestd in having Kashism as one of you country's religions.

Key figures within the CPRD

Chief of State- Director HOTAN

Hotan is one of the most enduring and definitive figures of the Choson People’s Republic of Dra-pol. His loyalty to the revolution, to the republic, to the idea, and to the late Director Kurosian is beyond contention.

Not born in time to become a hero of the revolutionary war Hotan is none the less a decorated soldier, having commanded the First Strategic Reserve during the Crusader War. In this role Hotan proved skilful, outmanoeuvring invading capitalist detachments and master-minding the defence of Da'Khiem, an operation that gave Germany the majority of its 8,500 wartime casualties and knocked that nation out of the conflict.

Following his time in the field, and concurrent with Kurosian I’s assassination in China, Hotan was attacked at Kanggye. Shot several times, the Secretary slew his three assailants with the aid of nothing more than a letter opener and his mastery of Drapoel unarmed martial arts.

Since the conclusion of his long and painful recovery, which was possible only with the help of Chinese and Beth Gellen doctors, Hotan has become Director of the Republic and has master-minded terrifingly elaborate and ruthless conspiracies by which he has preserved the CPRD against US-backed espionage.

Hotan is now known in Dra-pol as The Wisest Director.

Sho CHEIY

Is this man the head of the infamous Banat? A hopelessly vast organisation, the Banat is secret police, intelligence agency, and elite combat corps to the Choson People’s Republic. Boasting countless thousands of agents and bureaucrats, and hundreds of thousands of civilian informants the organisation has the impressive distinction of being wanted as a whole on charges of war crimes levelled against it by Quinntonia. Cheiy is one of precious few Drapoel ever to have set foot outside the republic, and is the highest-ranking Banat officer to be knowingly met by foreigners.

Director SULO

Credited as the founder of the republic and the champion of the revolution. Though outside Dra-pol little is known of the man, his statue appears across the republic, in several instances standing considerably taller than any building in Dra-pol besides the Central Directorature itself. Sulo was the first Director of the CPRD, and was responsible for the closure of the nation’s borders after the Korean War, and for the lasting ruralisation of the populace and collectivisation of the economy. His revolutionary credentials have recently been attacked by Hotan in a manner reminiscent of Khrushchev’s Secret Speech, but many continue to revere Sulo as an independence fighter if not a genuine socialist.

Director KUROSIAN I

After Sulo, Drapoel were for decades taught that the outside world destroyed itself in the 1950s, following years of total war. Director Kurosian I, Sulo’s eventual replacement, was in power when Quinntonian forces stumbled ashore and shattered Drapoel illusions. Widely believing the westerners to be demons or evil spirits the Drapoel people fought a desperate defence of their lands in what became domestically known as the Three Day War, and in Quinntonia as Kurosian’s Rage. This was apt testimony to the brutality of the second Director after he ordered human-wave attacks and mustard gas strikes against the outsiders.

Kurosian proved despite his excessive brutality to be a surprisingly well educated man and a competent politician. In truth, while telling his people that the outside world was gone, Kurosian spent time in Europe, receiving a western education and taking a European lover who would in time father him a second son.
Kurosian I was eventually assassinated by unknown agents while touring China in an effort to generate support for his embattled republic. His killers were suspected to be working for the Quinntonian-lead “Crusaders” as Kurosian branded them, but they remain at large.

Director KUROSIAN II

Kurosian I's eldest son, Kurosian II is today branded a traitor to the republic and remains even now in Quinntonian custody. Kurosian II was placed temporarily in power at the height of the Crusader War as his father attempted to placate the numerically, economically, and technologically superior forces aligned against him. When this and other gestures failed, Kurosian I attempted to retake his position and to fight on, only to find his son unwilling to relinquish power and keen to support the myth of his father’s demise.

Though Kurosian II inherited all of his father’s rage and brutality he appears to have missed much of the tact and cunning available to his genes. The Banat remained ever loyal to the elder Director and Kurosian II’s inability to recognise this fact cost him dear, as his father manipulated regular army units and the invading Crusaders in the instigating of what would later appear to be a Quinntonian ambush on a Drapoel aid convoy. This was done during the cease-fire negotiated by a treacherously weak-willed Kurosian II, and calculated to enrage the young pretender into a futile return to hostilities. During this renewed fighting the Banat were able to restore Kurosian I’s position, and the true Director well placed to end hostilities by surrendering his seemingly warmongering son.

The Crusaders never uncovered Kurosian I’s deception, and the US has since attempted to make Kurosian II an agent for their anti-Hotanite cause. Unfortunately the man is both pathalogically unhinged and generally less intelligent than he would like to have others believe, and even he does not fully understand how he has been manipulated by Da'Khiem.

OOC: Its fleur and I just talked with Dra-pol. He is adding in the German intervention in place of the non AMW coalition including countries aptly named as baseball kids for example.

I will be giving him discretion to write in Germany as he sees fit. Although if I see something glaring different from how Germany would have behaved I will post but otherwise, whatever Dra-pol says about Germany intervention happened.

Vessels of the People's Coast Guard

Cholima Class Hovercraft Assault Vehicle

Able to travel at sea and inshore.

Speed: 50 knots
Cargo: 40 infantrymen
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Race inshore and deploy marines to assault coastal positions from rear.

Bap Class Miniature Submarine

A small D/E submarine produced in two versions, one with torpedoes and one with mines.

Length: 30.4m
Speed: 9 knots submerged, 8 knots surfaced
Mines: 12
Torpedoes: 4x 485mm
Crew: 15 plus 6
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Insertion of commandos and agents all around the south. Stalking of hostile vessels and attack with torpedoes. Laying of mines outside enemy harbours. Laying of mines at sea between amphibious operations and any enemy fleets off shore.
Note: The Yellow Sea is already extensively mined north of the border.

Mogi Class missile craft

Light missile boats protecting Drapoel shores

Length: 25m
Speed: 40 knots
Missiles: 2xDSJ-1 single-tube SSM
Guns: 14.5mm twin-barrel dual-purpose
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Put out in small numbers initially to protect operations against enemy ships already at sea or attempting to leave port. Later to come out in force to assault any carrier task forces.

Tiburon Class patrol craft

Patrol and fire-support vessels with modest sensor suites.

Length: 38.2m
Speed: 26 knots
Guns: 1x75mm, 1x47mm twin barrel, 2x14.5mm twin-barrel
Rockets: 240mm MLRS mounted aft
Other weapons: 2x485mm anti-submarine/ship torpedoes
Crew: around 40+
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Usually on patrol against infiltration, also employed in giving fire-support with rockets and cannon.

Kae Class PTB

Torpedo boats.

Length: 19m
Speed: 49 knots
Torpedoes: 2x485mm tubes above water
Guns:2x14.5mm
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Attack enemy vessels at anchor in the engagement area, attempt to penetrate enemy harbours and spread torpedoes.

Choson Class LCP

Landing craft personnel.

Length: 25.7m
Speed: 40 knots
Guns: 2x14.5mm twin-barrel dual-purpose
Crew: 12
Cargo: 32 marines
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Immediately follow Cholima hovercraft in dropping troops directly on to beach; troops to proceed inland and cause disruption in enemy's rear.

Hungnam Class LCU

Landing craft utility.

Length: 47m
Speed: 12 knots
Guns: 2x30mm
Missiles: 2xSava-2 SAM
Crew: 31
Cargo: 3 tanks/AVs
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Insert armour to support assault. Provide additional point air defence to assault forces.
Note: Drapoel light tanks and APCs are amphbious and may arrive under their own power after medium tanks unloaded by LCUs.

Inch’on Class LCU

Landing craft utility.

Length: 33.9m
Speed: 10 knots
Guns: 2x14.5mm dual-mounts
Crew: 14
Cargo: 2 tanks/AVs or 150 troops
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Insert armour and troops to press inland if possible.

Three Day Class Assault-Support Boats

Fire support vessels.

Length: 25m
Speed: 40 knots
Crew: 23
Guns: 2x14.5mm dual-mounts
Rockets: 32x122mm tube MLRS
Strength: ? Revolutionary, ? Yellow
Task: Provide fire support to marine landings, operating in rolling duty aided by high speeds to maintain constant fire.

Kurosian I Class light patrol frigate

Al Khali Omar Class vessels built for Dra-pol.

Displacement: 1,400 ton full load
Dimensions: 300x34x10ft
Propulsion: 2 shafts; 2 cruise diesels, 3,800bhp; boost gas turbines, 42,000shp,
Speed: 18 knots cruise, 39 knots boost
Crew: 128 officers and men
Sensors: Al Khali air-search radar, sonar, and fire control
Guns: 1x100mm, 4x30mm, 3x14.5mm
Missiles: 2x3 Qian Wei SSM, 1x2 DRAR-19 SAM
Other arms: 1x ASW mortar
Strength: 1 Revolutionary, 1 Yellow
Task: Flagship operation, destruction of enemy warships