Problem is, there’s a lack of secondary sources too. ‘The Armed Forces of North Korea’ is one of the only detailed books with accurate information, and even then, it has some errors (and omits a number of vehicles — the authors did a great job, but they just can’t cover every vehicle, and so there are plenty that are only known from images or video)
I’m not sure if Jane’s is accepted as a source anymore, but that has awful information about North Korean vehicles. I’m not sure there are any other journals/books that have worthwhile information.
My concern is that most North Korean vehicles won’t be able to be added or bug-reported, simply because very few people (in particular, authoritative sources, not just randoms on the internet) have wanted to analyse them. A large number are only known from images, or are just briefly mentioned in books (like, 2–3 lines at best).
Just woke up to see my #1 favorite concept tree officially announced, how awesome. The loss of Greece and Cyprus is a shame, but I suppose you can’t have everything with Gaijin.
Regardless, I’m sure the tree will be completely barren at launch and it will turn into an Israel situation where people start believing that it never should have existed in the first place despite Gaijin very much ignoring most of its potential.
Im late to the party but im glad to see that Gaijin is willing to go on with the United Korean Tree. Thanks to @ChieftainWarrior and @SaabGripen for their efforts on making this happen.
It seems I’ve lost. Well I hope they add enough vehicles to it to properly fill it out. Does anyone know of any possible sub TT that could be added to united Korea? Poland maybe? It doesn’t hurt to think ahead.
With the announcement of the United Korean tree I believe it is time to revisit this question. While it may seem easy to vote “no” on such a trivial vehicle with little to no recorded history, we must consider that without it, United Korea will be the only tree in the game which is unable to have a heavy tank (either through current means or future additions), meaning that someone who does not play any other nation will be unable to do heavy tank oriented tasks.
Potential heavy tanks for nations that currently lack them:
—Japan: O-I
—Italy: 44M Tas
—Sweden: Kranvagn
—Israel: IS-3M (V-54)
—United Korea: IS-2 (1944)?
It is a somewhat minor thing, but I do believe that every tree deserves to have one of each vehicle that’s rank III+ to play with. Of course, for most other vehicle types (at least in terms of ground vehicles) this is pretty easy, but with heavy tanks it is more challenging.
As for the historical context, there is little to go off. Allegedly, 12 IS-2 Mod.1944 were donated by the Soviets alongside other pieces of heavy armor such as ISU-122s and SU-100s during the postwar period. These vehicles did not see any service during the Korean War, and were eventually relegated to reserves. I am not sure where exactly this information originated, but it was generally considered dubious at best until around December 2024 when a propaganda video revealed that at least one vehicle was kept at an outdoor museum alongside the aforementioned ISU-122 and SU-100.
As mentioned above, none of the potential history of North Korean IS-2s is verified, but at least in my opinion, these unfounded claims combined with visual confirmation of the tank’s existence in NK is enough to warrant its appearance ingame as United Korea’s only present heavy tank. Obviously if your opinion differs, that’s all good, but I do personally think it’s necessary to “complete” the tree just as high tier MBTs and SPAA do.
These are the only two useful sources I could find with a quick search. More in-depth ones would be much appreciated!
Yeah ISU-122 and SU-100 were of course not the intention of my post. They are neat and all but I am still largely opposed to copy paste in most forms (save for the IS-2 for reasons specified), and there is no doubt that NK is by no means lacking in self-propelled guns that can fill the niche.
