| Pictures (click to enlarge) |
Type | Description | Blade Length |
Overall Length |
Muzzle |
Markings | |||
| in. | mm. | in. | mm. | in. | mm. | ||||
        |
Type 58 (AK47) | Knife bayonet for use with the 7.62 mm. North Korean Type 58 rifle, a variant of the Kalashnikov AK47 assault rifle.
Closely patterned on the Russian AK47 bayonet, the markings are distinctly North Korean. This Type 58 has reddish plastic grips (a wooden grip example has also been documented). The hilt is blued, as is the scabbard. The North Korean scabbard is distinctive in how the ends of the belt hanger attachment almost touch in the middle of the scabbard body. Most of the (relatively few) examples documented have scabbards absent the belt hanger. Provenance with this example indicates that it was returned from the October 1983 U.S. Invasion of Grenada by a U.S. Navy Seal Team member. It appears to have been unissued, but external surfaces exhibit some storage/handling wear. The blade/scabbard and upper tang area were still packed with grease when I received it. This example would have been furnished by North Korea to Cuba. Cuba, then furnished it to Grenada, either to Marxist revolutionaries or to the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) following the Marxist coup that seized power in 1979. |
8.00 | 203 | 12.375 | 314 | .700 | 17.8 | Ricasso (left): punch mark
Crosspiece (left): Star in Circle Pommel (left): "0397" |
     |
Type 68 (AKM) |
Knife bayonet for use with the 7.62 mm. North Korean Type 68 rifle, a variant of the Kalashnikov AKM assault rifle.
The North Korean AKM bayonet departs from the typical AKM bayonet patterns used by most countries. It is a hybrid of sorts, retaining many of the features of the AK47 bayonet, with a different pommel to allow mounting to the AKM. The fullered clip-point blade is also a hybrid of the AK47 and AKM designs. It has brown plastic grip scales. Steel scabbard with green web belt hanger and leather hilt strap. The web belt hanger measures 4.25 in. (108 mm.) long x 0.875 in. (22 mm.) wide. Some North Korean Type 68 bayonets had scabbards with tan webbing, instead of green. This example has seen use and, when I acquired it, still had bits of vegetation caught in the web belt hanger. It likely was taken during the 1980s, in Grenada or (more likely) Panama, when the U.S. invasions took place. Furnished by Cuba, these bayonets were used by Panamanian paramilitary “Dignity Battalions,” formed in 1988 to put down demonstrations against the Noriega government and to resist the expected U.S. invasion (which came in December 1989). The Dignity Battalions earned the lasting nickname, “dingbats,” when U.S. invasion commander, General Maxwell Thurman, was quoted in the Christmas Day edition of the New York Times, saying that Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was holed-up in the Vatican Mission, which he (Thurman) had surrounded with a “goodly number” of U.S. troops because, “I don't want the dingbats blowing their way through the embassy.” |
6.50 |
165 | 11.75 |
298 | .700 |
17.8 | Crosspiece: "4579" |
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