Menghean Maritime Security Force

The Maritime Security Force (Menghean: 해양 보안 부대/海洋保安部隊, Haeyang Boan Budae) is the coast guard of Menghe. It has undergone multiple reorganizations, reclassifications, and name changes over the years, and was formerly known as the Maritime Patrol Force, the Maritime Border Security Force, and, informally but not in official translations, the Menghean Coast Guard. Since 2017, it has been organized as an agency-level body subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Security, and thus it is formally known as the Maritime Security Force of the Ministry of Internal Security of the Socialist Republic of Menghe (Dae Meng Sahoejuyi Gonghwaguk Guknae Boanbu Haeyang Boan Budae).

Though no longer directly subordinate to the Menghean Navy, as it was between 2011 and 2017, the Maritime Security Force is a paramilitary organization and many of its ships are armed and built to military standards. In wartime, the Menghean government can transfer control of its assets to the Menghean Navy, which would use them as auxiliary escorts and patrol vessels.

History

In 1962, while the Menghean War of Liberation was still underway, Communist forces established the Coastal Militia (해안 민병대 / 海岸民兵隊, Haean Minbyŏngdae), the precursor to today's Maritime Security Force. The Coastal Militia were organized by the Menghean People's Communist Party and its guerrilla fighters, and were primarily tasked with patrolling the coast to find enemy spies, saboteurs, and landing forces, and to monitor the movement of ships along the coast. Some coastal militia units commandeered fast motorboats and even fishing trawlers to patrol coastal waters and intercept suspicious ships, though most of them relied on foot patrols along the shore.

After the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe was founded in 1964, Coastal Militia units were transferred to the control of local governments. Like police agencies, they were divided into county, city, or municipal units, which could be coordinated by prefectural and provincial governments higher up the chain of command. As such, the quality of equipment varied considerably between localities, though none operated any purpose-built patrol vessels, instead relying on some combination of commandeered civilian vessels and small open-topped motorboats. Most coastal militia units existed in their own department-level agencies, and organization differed from one jurisdiction to another.

To standardize and professionalize these coastal militias, the DPRM reorganized them into the Maritime Border Police Force (해양 국경 경찰 부대 / 海洋國境警察部隊, Haeyang Gukgyŏng Gyŏngchal Budae) in 1975. Like secret police units, the Maritime Border Police were controlled by the Bureau of State Security in each locale. As part of this more centralized oversight, they were also reorganized to fall under the control of provincial governments, allowing them to more easily cross inter-county and inter-prefectural maritime borders and base ships in the largest available ports. The Maritime Border Police Force also had a centralized and standardized procurement process, allowing them to order purpose-built patrol boats and gunboats rather than arming civilian craft.

Like the Coastal Militia, the Maritime Border Police Force was ostensibly tasked with patrolling the country's territorial waters, and later its exclusive economic zone, to catch spies, saboteurs, and contraband smugglers. In practice, its main mission was domestic repression: its ships intercepted defectors attempting to flee the country, sometimes with lethal force, and put an end to unlicensed private fishing and private smuggling. The Maritime Border Police Force also served as a civilian counterweight to the Menghean People's Navy, which, under the terms of the Sangwŏn Agreement, was insulated from the oversight of the Menghean People's Communist Party. The Maritime Border Police Squadron in Donggyŏng included gunboats and torpedo boats which could, in theory, attack a Menghean People's Navy formation entering the Kimhae Sea en route to the capital, though as the Menghean People's Navy expanded and modernized it maintained a considerable edge over the Maritime Border Police, which were forbidden from operating any vessel with a top speed of more than 20 knots and a displacement of more than 500 tonnes.

After the Decembrist Revolution, the Ministry of State Security was disbanded and its personnel were purged. To further dismantle the power of the outgoing regime, the interim government transferred the Maritime Border Police Force to the control of the Menghean Navy, which, as a military body, had been insulated from Communist ideological control and was relatively loyal to Choe Sŭng-min's new regime. There, it was renamed the Maritime Border Security Force (해양 국경 보안 부대 / 海洋國境保安部隊, Haeyang Gukgyŏng Boan Budae). In 1992, it changed its flag to four navy blue stripes on a white background with an anchor in a gold circle in the middle, thus using the Navy's own colors and symbols.

In 1995, content that the civilian bureaucracy was loyal to his new regime, Choe Sŭng-min transferred the Maritime Border Security Force back to the control of the Ministry of Internal Security. There, it was still called the Maritime Border Security Force, but its flag was changed to replace the Navy anchor with a blue shield bearing the characters 海保 (Haebo), an abbreviation for Maritime Security. With the Sangwŏn Agreement and its informal restrictions on non-military warship size no longer in effect, the Maritime Border Security Force assumed control of several dozen retired Navy ships, including two Ginam-class frigates. It also assumed control over border patrol units on the Baek River and San River, organizing them into two flotillas, each of which monitored river traffic and border crossings along the portion of each river which served as a national boundary.

The agency was returned to Navy control in 2011, as one of the aftereffects of the 2005 Menghean military reforms. This reorganization was meant to streamline the wartime integration of the paramilitary auxiliary and the active Navy. During this time, it was renamed the Maritime Patrol Force (해양 순찰대 / 海洋巡察隊Haeyang Sunchaldae) and it once again flew the blue-stripe flag with an anchor insignia. Its missions were once again restricted to border patrol and maritime law enforcement, with the Baek River Flotilla and San River Flotilla transferred to the Border Patrol Forces of the Ministry of Internal Security.

The latest reorganization came in 2017, after the resolution of the Innominadan Crisis but primarily in the wake of Tak Jong-ho's dismissal as Commander-in-Chief. The Maritime Patrol Force was renamed the Maritime Security Force and placed back under the control of the Ministry of Internal Security. It was also expanded, absorbing three other bodies:

• the Maritime Traffic Control Agency, formerly part of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, tasked with tending buoys and regulating shipping routes;
• the Maritime Environmental Service, formerly part of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, tasked with regulating illegal fishing and dumping outside territorial waters; and
• the Maritime Rescue Service (대멩 해양 구조대 / 大孟海洋救助隊, Dae Meng Haeyang Gujodae), formerly part of the Ministry of Public Security, tasked with search and rescue operations.

Following this reorganization, the Maritime Security Force now serves as a consolidated agency with the combined missions and resources of a proper coast guard.

Missions

Following its reorganization and consolidation in 2017, the Maritime Security Force is tasked with the following missions in peacetime:

1. Maritime border enforcement, including preventing unlawful incursions into Menghe's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone;
2. Maritime border patrol, the interception of vessels unlawfully entering or leaving the country and any unauthorized passengers or contraband aboard;
3. Maritime law enforcement, including collaboration with international law enforcement agencies to combat cross-border crime;
4. Maritime traffic management, including maintaining shipping lanes and regulating maritime tourism;
5. Search and rescue, specifically air-sea rescue as well as rescue in coastal areas;
6. Disaster response, extending to the shipment of supplies to affected areas;
7. At-sea firefighting, for example at oil platforms and damaged ships;
8. Oceanography and Hydrographic survey, marking of submerged obstacles, and placement and maintenance of buoys; and
9. Marine environmental protection, including monitoring water pollution levels, combating illegal dumping, and containing and cleaning up hazardous spills.

Though the Maritime Security Force is no longer under the direct oversight of the Menghean Navy, the Navy still has the authority to command its ships in times of war. Though usually lacking the newest sensors and weapons, Maritime Security ships often carry some gun armament and provisions for the mounting of additional weapon systems, and could be used as auxiliary escort ships in rear areas or as minelayers in contested or defended waters. Some of the latest Maritime Security ships are configured to accept special-purpose mission modules, including minehunting gear and variable depth sonar. The Maritime Security Force would also deploy its resources to locate and rescue downed airmen and the survivors of sunken ships.

Organization

Overview

Since its latest reorganization in 2017, the Maritime Security Force has been divided into four Regions, each corresponding to a major geographic area: the East Menghe Sea, the South Menghe Sea, the Meng River, and the rivers which empty into the Meridian Ocean. Regions are further divided into Sectors, with each sector named for either a major waterway or the city hosting its headquarters. The sectors in the East Sea Region and South Sea Region are further grouped into Zones to add an intermediate layer of management.

Assets under the command of one sector are allowed to cross sector boundaries when pursuing a fleeing vessel, or to intercept a distress signal or suspicious vessel across boundaries if no other assets are available in the adjacent sector, but they generally patrol and respond to calls within their own sector. Long-range assets like large patrol vessels and fixed-wing aircraft are directly subordinate to Zone commanders, allowing them to freely operate across sector boundaries within their Zone.

On land, the boundaries between zones typically follow prefectural or at least county boundaries, but they were primarily drawn to follow groups of river watersheds as much as possible. This minimizes the number of places where a navigable waterway crosses a sector boundary. Small rivers are administered by a coastal sector, and Maritime Security Bases along the coast may send small craft upriver as needed or create special river patrol bases. Large rivers or river systems have their own sectors, and the Meng River has three.

Sections of the Baek, Saehan, and San Rivers mark Menghe's boundaries with neighboring countries, and navigable sections of the Singyŏng, Taeban, and Saehan Rivers flow across Menghe's border. On these sections of the waterway, the Maritime Security Force is responsible for patrolling the waterway itself and those feeding into it, intercepting unapproved crossings and smuggling. The Border Patrol Forces are responsible for patrolling the Menghean riverbank on land. The Sayak, Ergel, Övög, Tomkhavtsal, Berom, and Tam Rivers also form parts of Menghe's boundaries or cross the border, but these segments are too shallow, too rocky, and too remote to justify the use of riverine patrol craft, so the Border Patrol Forces patrol the riverbanks without support from vessels on the water. Originally, the short section of the Borang River between Menghe and the former Innominada fell into a similar treatment, but in 2019 Menghe and Argentstan concluded an agreement which would allow river patrol boats in the San River Sector to cross through Argentstani territory along the Borang River to reach the Menghean border further north.

Though neither commanding them nor under their command, Maritime Security Force units regularly coordinate with the Army, the Navy, various branches of the Internal Security Forces, and local police, fire, and environmental regulation units when conducting their missions.

Organization chart

• East Sea Region
  • Zone 1
    • Zone 1 Patrol Fleet
    • Baek River Sector
    • Chŏngdo Sector
    • Donggyŏng Sector
    • Saekgu Sector
  • Zone 2
    • Zone 2 Patrol Fleet
    • Anchŏn Sector
    • Haeju Sector
    • Ranju Sector
    • Gyŏngsan Sector
• South Sea Region
  • Zone 3
    • Zone 3 Patrol Fleet
    • Wihae Sector
    • Sanbon Sector
    • Chanam Sector
  • Zone 4
    • Zone 4 Patrol Fleet
    • Dongchŏn Sector
    • Oro Rivers Sector
    • Daman Sea Sector
  • Zone 5
    • Zone 5 Patrol Fleet
    • Jŏnsun Sector
    • Gwangbo Sector
    • San River Sector
• Meng River Region
  • Lower Meng Sector
  • Central Meng Sector
  • Upper Meng Sector
• Inland Region
  • Singyŏng River Sector
  • Taeban River Sector
  • Seyhan River Sector

Past organization

The Maritime Border Police Force, established in 1975, was divided into 15 flotillas: one corresponding to each province or directly-controlled city along the coast, plus riverine patrol flotillas in Songgang Province and the Ketchvan Autonomous Province, established in 1978. Each flotilla was under the direct control of the corresponding city or province's Bureau of State Security for its day-to-day operations, though the Maritime Border Police Agency, part of the national Ministry of State Security, controlled procurement, training, and other standards, and could issue commands directly to the border flotillas, bypassing the city or provincial government. During this period, each flotilla's operations were strictly limited to the territorial waters of the corresponding province or city, and ships could only cross into other jurisdictions after seeking the approval of the Maritime Border Police Agency higher up.

After its transfer to Navy control in 1988, the Maritime Border Security Force retained this 15-flotilla organization, but each flotilla was directly controlled by the Maritime Border Security Agency, which was subordinate to the Administrative Office of the Menghean Navy within the Ministry of National Defense. Thus, they were provincial flotillas in name only, with no connections to the corresponding provincial government. In 1991, as part of the expansion of the Maritime Border Security Force, Menghe established an East Sea Security Fleet and a South Sea Security Fleet. Each of these fleets, also subordinate to central agency control, was responsible for longer-range patrols of Menghe's exclusive economic zone in the South Menghe Sea and East Menghe Sea, respectively, while the flotillas were mainly responsible for inshore and coastal patrols. This structure initially persisted after the Maritime Border Security Force was handed back to the Ministry of Internal Security in 1995, though with the addition of two-way liaison offices between the flotillas and their corresponding city or provincial governments.

In 1997, the Maritime Border Security Force revised its flotilla patrol areas, giving the Donggyŏng Coastal Flotilla control over the entire Kimchang Sea (as the Kimchang Coastal Flotilla) and expanding the Hwangjŏn Coastal Flotilla's control over the entire Daman Sea (as the Daman Coastal Flotilla). Over the course of the late 1990s and 2000s, the Ministry of Internal Security also gave provincial governments more control over their corresponding coastal flotillas. In 2012, one year after the Maritime Border Security Force became the Maritime Patrol Force, the Navy reorganized the provincial flotillas into regional commands, further increased central control over them, and improved the procedures to transfer ships between them and handle issues with overlapping jurisdiction.

The Maritime Traffic Control Agency, the Maritime Environmental Service, and the Maritime Rescue Service were all created in the 2000s in response to the rapid increase in shipping that accompanied Menghe's economic miracle. They were under the control of entirely separate ministries, and had their own systems of organization. While the Maritime Border Security Force was exclusively concerned with coastal areas and riverine borders, these agencies' zones of authority extended far inland, allowing their boats to operate up the watersheds of Menghe's navigable rivers and canals.

This system came to an end in 2017, when the Maritime Patrol Force was merged with the three other maritime agencies and placed back under Ministry of Internal Security control as the Maritime Security Force. This comprehensive reorganization included the creation of today's system of regions, zones, and sectors.

Symbols

Paint schemes

Today, ships of the Menghean Maritime Security Force are painted in an all-over white scheme on the sides and hull, with green paint on the decks and horizontal surfaces. Below the waterline, they use the same red anti-fouling paint as the rest of the Menghean Navy.

Until about 1990, ships of Menghe's maritime security agencies were painted in the same slate grey as the ships of the Menghean Navy. They also used black hull numbers, though preceded by the prefix 경 (gyŏng), denoting "police." Starting in 1990, Maritime Border Security Force ships were seen in overall white paint, to make them more easily recognizable from Navy vessels.

Racing stripes

Ships of the Menghean Maritime Security Force have four navy blue stripes under the forecastle, rising at an angle of 65 degrees. These four stripes have multiple meanings, but officially, they represent the four services that were merged into the Maritime Security Force in 2017: border security, traffic control, environmental protection, and maritime rescue.

See also

• Menghean Navy
• Internal Security Forces (Menghe)