“Yes, sir!” The major began issuing a rapid series of orders to his Reaper teams while reaching for the phone.
Marching through the video feeds, Tony saw that four of the six UAVs showed similar scenes with North Korean army units heading north along major highways. Even around Panmunjom, the site of the earlier incident, troops were moving away from the DMZ. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, even though he couldn’t begin to explain what was happening. All he knew was the KPA was conducting a large-scale withdrawal from the DMZ. It was unprecedented, and unexplainable, and therefore unnerving.
Fifteen minutes later, the watch team provided a very rough sketch of what was going on along the DMZ. It wasn’t precise, but the data was good enough for Tony to order an alert sent out to all Combined Forces Command units.
He moved over to a video teleconference — capable computer, inserted his common access card, and logged into the secure computer network. Pulling up his address menu, he located the chief of staff, US Forces Korea, and hit the “Video Call” button. Tony waited impatiently while the connecting icon spun on the screen and the sound of a ringing phone filled the cubicle. After what seemed like an inordinate amount of time, the ringing suddenly stopped. A text box popped up on the monitor.
CONNECTION FAILED. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.
“Oh, for the love of…” Tony growled. He reached over, grabbed the handset for the secure line, and aggressively started punching buttons. The phone rang twice before a female voice answered.
“US Forces Korea Headquarters. Chief of Staff’s office. How may I help you, sir or ma’am?”
“This is Brigadier General Christopher at Seventh Air Force. I need to speak with Major General O’Rourke immediately.”
“Yes, sir!” exclaimed the woman. “Stand by while I put you through.”
Seconds later, a tired voice came on the line. “Hey Tony, what can I do for you?”
“Dan, we have a major situation developing on the DMZ. Multiple UAVs are showing elements of the KPA First, Second, and Fifth Corps withdrawing from the DMZ and heading north. I’ve issued an alert based on this information to all CFC units.”
The initial response to Tony’s report was dead silence. When O’Rourke finally spoke again, his voice was tense. “Please repeat your last message.”
Tony grinned. He couldn’t blame the other man for wanting to hear it again. If he hadn’t seen the UAV video with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed it either.
“We have multiple Mike Quebec Niner eyes on target,” Tony said patiently, emphasizing every word. “They’re showing elements of the First, Second, and Fifth Forward Army Corps on the move. These units are heading north, I repeat, heading north, away from the DMZ. I’ve ordered an alert sent to all CFC units.”
“The NKs are pulling back from the DMZ? That doesn’t make any sense,” O’Rourke said flatly.
Tony shrugged. “I hear you, Dan, but that doesn’t change the facts. The North Koreans are abandoning their positions along the DMZ in droves.”
“Okay, okay, can you send me some video clips? I need to get this to General Fascione ASAP!”
“I’ve already got the Sixth Intel Squadron watch team putting together a representative collection,” replied Tony. “I was going to walk you through a couple of shots on the video link but I couldn’t get through to your account.”
An exasperated sigh came from the other end of the phone line. “Yeah, my computer’s been disconnected. The headquarters element is moving from Yongsan Garrison to Camp Humphreys this week and this whole place is completely FUBAR. Have the Sixth IS send the clips to the USFK watch officer and he’ll get them uploaded for the bigwigs. They should be convening here in about an hour.”
“Will do.” Tony hesitated for just a second. “But, look, please do me a favor and tell my boss before he sees the videos in the conference room, okay? Blindsiding a superior isn’t my normal operating procedure, and I really don’t want to do that to General Carter with less than a month on the job — it could make for a strained relationship.”
“No problem,” O’Rourke assured him.
“Thanks, Dan,” Tony replied. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a set of waving arms trying to get his attention. At the other end of the room, the Sixth IS major pointed to his watch and then held up five fingers. Tony nodded and gave the man the “okay” sign. “You’ll have the video clips in about five minutes.”
“Great. That’ll do just fine, thanks,” O’Rourke said. Then, in a lower voice, he asked, “Look, do you have any wild ass theories as to why they’re moving away from the DMZ?”
Tony sighed and shook his head. “This withdrawal goes against everything I thought I knew about North Korea. It just doesn’t make any sense. But if you want wild speculation, I can come up with two possible scenarios. Either we are seeing one of the best fake-out maneuvers in history, or something has gone seriously wrong inside the DPRK. Neither of those bode well for our long-term health and well-being.”
The USFK conference room was filled to capacity and then some. The twelve leather chairs surrounding the main table were occupied by either an American or a Republic of Korea general officer. The more junior staff officers were bunched together in four rows of seats at the back of the room or lined up against the walls. All watched with rapt attention as Brigadier General George Olsen, the USFK intelligence officer, or J2, narrated the video clips sent up from Osan.
“In this clip, you can see elements of the Fifth Corps heading north toward Wonsan along Asian Highway 6. Based on rough estimates of column length, we’re looking at brigade-size units. Those vehicles are also packed in pretty close to each other, and they’re moving damned fast, considering it was still dark when this video was shot. Whatever the North Koreans are up to, they are in one hell of a hurry.”
“What types of vehicles were seen heading north?” General Ji Sang-hoon, chief of the ROK Air Force, asked.
“In this clip, sir, all the vehicles appear to be two-and-a-half-ton utility trucks, basically troop carriers. The majority of the other videos show the same thing,” Olsen told him. “But we’ve seen tanks, Chinese Type 69s, Russian T-62s or the North Korean Chonma-ho variants, in battalion strength, in two other clips. That’s on the order of sixty tanks on the road, and they’re heading toward Pyongyang.”
“That would suggest division-level redeployment, wouldn’t it, George?” observed Lieutenant General Robert Tracy, commander of the US Eighth Army.
Olsen nodded. “That’s our current assessment. Based on some very rough OOB accounting, we’re estimating that between five and seven regular infantry divisions are currently on the move. This represents about one-third to one-half the regular strength of the three Forward Army corps along the DMZ. And I must remind you that this only takes into account what we’re able to see. The true extent of the North Korean redeployment could be even larger.”
A low murmur broke out as the men and women crowding the room began talking with their neighbors. The J2 waited until the noise had settled down before wrapping up his presentation. “Are there any other questions?”
“Just the most important one, George,” chimed in General Thomas Fascione, commander of the Combined Forces Command, and Commander, US Forces Korea. “Why?”
Olsen shrugged. “To be honest, sir, we don’t know. The best theory we can come up with, based largely on the UAV footage, the incident at the Joint Security Area late last night, and the complete shutdown of North Korean radio and TV, is that there may have been a coup.”