Pyongyang Defense Command

 

updated 30 March 2026

The Pyongyang Defense Command [PDC], also known as the 91st Corps and previously as the Capital Defense Command, is  responsible for the security and military defense of Pyongyang and its immediate surroundings.  The PDC is a Korean People’s Army [KPA] corps-level unit consisting of between eight (8) and ten divisions with a total personnel of 60,000.  The PDC has mechanized and tank brigades, a heavy weapons brigade and artillery and MLRS brigades.

The PDC’s primary mission is to defend the leadership and the capital from a military coup. It links with core leadership bodyguard organizations including the Guard Department and Guard Command.  It links with the III Army Corps in South P’yo’ngan Province which forms the outer perimeter protecting Pyongyang.

The PDC was organized in 1955 as a division and upgrade to corps unit under the KPA General Staff.   It has undergone mergers and separations with the Guard Command and III Corps over the last 50 years.

 

See also:

Bermudez, Joseph S., Jr.  The Armed Forces of North Korea London: IB Tauris, 2001

Gause, Ken.  North Korean Civil-Military Trends: Military First Politics to a Point (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute USAWC, 2006)

Oh, Kongdan, Ed., DPRK Policy Elites (Joseph S. Bermudez; Ken Gause; Ralph C. Hassig; Alexandre Y. Mansourov; David J. Smith) Alexandria, VA: IDA,  2004