North korea at it again.....

랴연 wrote: »

They make a lot of their own weaponry, which contrary to popular belief is quite effective. And their soldiers training is really top class, much better then the Americans (General Infantry).

Not really a subject matter expert on this, are you?

Whilst I would be willing to believe the concept that the average DPRK infantryman is the equal of any other infantryman in the world in terms of physical fitness, rifle marskmanship (though with the rifle they have, that's questionable in practice), concealment and squad tactics, there's a lot more to modern soldiering that those simple skills. The extremely conformist NK military suffers the flaws of the old Soviet bloc militaries upon which it is based: It is highly inflexible and does not tolerate individual initiative much. Soldiers are not trained to a level higher than that which they hold, and the professional, educated NCO corps which is the backbone of a modern military simply does not exist.

This goes to larger levels as well. Any soldier in the US military is capable of grabbing a radio and calling in immediate support. In the DPRK's system, only designated artillery observers are authorised to do so. Response times are slower. And that's before you get to the technical intricacies of calling in CCA or CAS. Or the serious EW advantage the Western powers have in terms of jamming and resistance to jamming to make the call in the first place.

Indeed, when it comes to equipment, there is simply no comparison between the DPRK's equipment and that of the powers it faces. For example, the only tank it builds which is even remotely capable of being considered 'modern' (and which they have only in small numbers) is a T-72 variant which is uniquely unsuited to Korea's mountainous terrain. The Air Force won't last the week. The artillery is very strong, but suffers a lack of mobility and response capability. Night fighting capability is all but useless throughout the army.

Their one and only strength is manpower. UN forces can expect a mass infiltration and combat actions behind the front lines. The Russians had a saying that "Quantity has a quality all of its own", but when the technological overmatch is so huge, the chances of a DPRK victory are negligible. They can be as motivated as they want, but in the final analysis if one army has equipment to the level of thermal sights mounted on man-packed machineguns, and the other has nothing better than active IR on vehicles, the result is going to be pre-ordained. Especially when you look at the defences that the ROK has put into place. All you need to do is go take a drive North and look at the layers of coast-to-coast barriers and anti-vehicle obstacles between Seoul and the DMZ. It is true that as the population ages and the younger people gain in numbers that the perception of the threat from the North has decreased. That has not yet permeated through the mid-to-senior levels of the military, however, they take dealing with the DPRK very seriously.

Your also talking about an entire population who would take up arms against you and there would be no surrendering or running away like the Iraqi's

But would the NK people take up arms against the ROK military crossing North? As you point out yourself, the Koreans consider themselves brothers facing each other, not sworn enemies for all time. They call the Korean War "The Great Fratricidal Conflict."

(BTW, if you've not visited the War Memorial yet, I recommend it. One of the more interesting military musea out there)

NTM