Equipment used by Korean soldiers


I'm not very familiar with the equipment of the Armed Forces of the DRK and ROK but some pictures I've seen seem to contradict what looks like standard equipment in the movie.

-Helmets: In the film North Korean soldiers wear the WW2 and Vietnam War era American-designed M1 helmet while South Koreans use the Gulf War era American PASGT helmet.

On the few pictures of North Korean soldiers wearing helmets at all that I've seen, they are wearing what I think are Cold War era Soviet-designed helmets, while South Korean soldiers use the WW2 and Vietnam War era American-designed M1 helmet.

-Assault rifles: The South Korean soldiers in the movie use mainly the M-16 (or was it M-4?) rifle, while from what I've seen, their standard weapon is the Daewoo K2.

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Although I'm not an expert on military equipment so I can't point out the exact model names and so forth, I can give you a partial answer as a former Korean army sergeant (1998-2000) who worked in the United Nations Command in Korea.

During my service, the south of the JSA was guarded by the UN forces, composed of American and Korean personnel. The Korean military personnel were under American command, so outside of the small JSA, for example in their barracks and elsewhere, they could and did use US equipment. Yet, inside the JSA, in order not to be mocked and taunted as being "America's slaves" (or something like that) by the North Koreans, they wore strictly South Korean military attire. Sort of a hybrid protocol.

There are some factual errors that I could point out from the move. First, there is no soldier working in the guard post on the sides of the "bridge of no return" after the axe-murder incident. Second, no longer can neutral nations officer cross the borders freely - Sophie cannot just go back and forth. Third, when Sophie is relieved of his duty, the letter is shown to be from the commander of ROK-US allied force(???????). The title is incorrect (has to be ????? ????), and in fact she can't be fired by the commander in principle - the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission is completely independent from the UN and US and ROK.

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Thanks for that insight :)

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The NK helmets were definitely not M-1's, looks like Eastern Block steel helmets, can't be sure of the model.

"OI OI! You lucky people."

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