They do pose a military threat, because even absent a sufficient technology, they can destabilize the region. The korean war ended in armistice and the peace agreement was unilaterally revoked. They do have a large armed forces and they have the required element : hostility. So there could be action due to provocation at any time, especially if NK thinks it can gain points. The scenario is not real clear.
No. They pose literary no threat to Americans/Canadians/Western countries.
This is all about expansionist plans hatched long ago. Keep watching that television.
Gobbo, technology doesn’t win a war, it is a component to warfare, and reacted to unexpectedly in time and place (in otherwords, unintended variables, unlike in chess where the results can be expected when a piece moves)- strategy wins the war. Lack of weapons is no excuse for failure, as the Japanese would say.
And no- the high definition cameras aren’t that swell… because there is a significant time delay, as it has to go through intelligence. Yes… Obama can watch stuff on headmounts with the general staff in real time, but the Land-Warrior System outside of Special Forces is a joke othewise… it’s not down to the level of the individual soldier, not the squad, nor the platoon (outside of some humvee tech), nor is it even on the company level. The technology is stuck on the battalion level in the airborne infantry, and for the strkers, it’s stuck in the vehicle itself, and they have to stay within sight of the stryker when they dismount or else all that high tech surveillance goes to waste… which sucks for a force that is trained for cover and concealment.
Intelligence is just a bunch of guys, sitting around looking at computer screens, and trying to make heads or tails of the surroundings. If they are lucky enough to be watching it in real time, it’s from a angle- from a camera, or right above in a google earth position… or from a helicopter flying overhead.
The channels of communication is choked… intel wants a say, their local commander wants a say, if the generals are watching they want a say… and on the poor soldier’s end, it’s a fucking radio going tuned in at best to the squad, platoon, and company frequencies, and depending on the system, you gotta manually switch the dial to hear what the other stations are saying.
Honestly… the Command and Conquer worldview simply doesn’t exist. It’s hard to say when a battle is going on if the people hiding in the ditch are in a ambush position, or civilians justifiably hiding from the bullets (they can’t be expected to know how close the fight is, or if it’s aimed at them, or if they can escape).
Watching from a satellite, you can have 300 people in a fight… and in actuality, only 50 are in it. Those 250 extra of erratic movements CAN LOOK like military movements of flanking and retreating… but you don’t know the actuality of their intentions. They might be retreating from the battle as deserters, or might be civilians wrong place, wrong time, or might be farmers who don’t give a fuck because the war has been going on their whole life and just really want to plow their fields.
It’s up to the poor guys on the ground, and their first line of commanders at best are using cameras if they are back in base… or switching their view from camera to satellite, and even then… it’s still being refered back to the foreward observers and leaders in the field, outside of obvious troop movements so you can call in fire.
North Korea Tech is sound… despite how funny it looks, on a military level. Your IPhone isn’t going to stop a attack. Your shiny building in Seoul or Vancouver doesn’t make North Korean Artillery fire any less accurately than our artillery. We have several hat tricks admittedly, but I’ve also gotta note most guys who died in afganistan and iraq died from some of the oldest tricks in the book.
Fact is, GOBBO, North Korea has some admazingly advance technology- the killing kind, piled up on the border of South Korea… even without the nukes, it would be scary.
They can use their nukes to build a very simple nuclear rifle, equivalent to our M65… which more than gets the job done. Your thinking you have to deliver a nuke via a missile, and that somehow because we have better processors, they won’t work. That’s like saying because Canada is more primitive than the US, you GOBBO, you Vancouver, couldn’t pull off a devastating attack. Is that true? You honestly think because your people aren’t as technologically advanced as the US, your incompetent?
The logic makes no sense. Can the DPRK win a war short of nuclear genocide? Not really… even if the nuke Seoul they will still loose… but even a non-nuclear war guarantees the lost of several hundreds of thousands within minutes.
Sparta was more primitive in comparison to Athens… Athens even had a wall, specialized troops such as archers… but they still lost. Your lone of reasoning is that Athens would by default win, because they have the Parthenon, and tall walls, and archers… meanwhile, experienced troops manning those walls would point out they Spartans would be quite capable of fighting them headon and could do alot of damage none the less, and the stone masons who maintained the Parthenon would point out despite the superiority and wealth inherent in the stonework… the spartans can chip at the walls with very simple tools, they same tools they used, which isn’t a Athenian monopoly.
Your position, in other words Gobbo, is unfounded. It encourages a war, instead of deescalating it, as your playing into the warhawks in North Korea and the peace faction in south korea. This leaves South Korea at a massive disadvantage, and artificially weakens them from a lack of allies. It’s a position that blatantly disregards the lives of the average person in Seoul, as well as the population that will be dragged into the war in North Korea.
We all must question anything that the American media–mainstream on down–chooses as subject matter for news, especially when it gets hard treatment as the NK has been getting. The detestable John Kerry is meeting with or has met the S.Korean something-or-other today. Be very nervous whenever he is involved: he should NOT be dog-catcher, much less Secretary of State.
No matter what, whenever we’re told to look at this here, we had better look over there to see what we’re not supposed to see.
A thorough, hard look at the 20th century should lead anyone to conclude that the battle between Communists and the rest of us (self-governed nations and other forms) is not over. America is an ally of S.Korea. It would be difficult to imagine that any American Commander in Chief (Executive) would not use the military at his command and come to the aid of an ally that is being invaded, for example. I don’t know whether the NKs have any allies who will support them in some move against SK.
Do I think NK is going to invade SK? What I know is that anyone who wants to do anything against anyone inside or outside their national boundaries would think this to be the optimal time to do it, whatever it may be, big or small.
Don’t make any major decisions or investments for the next three years. If you’ve been putting off that vacation, do it now. If there is some chicky-poo you’ve been dreaming about, make the move now. (What would be the male equivalent?..dicky-poo?)
We wouldn’t be talking about this if the television hadn’t told you to.
Same thing with Iran.
You guys can say what you want, you know it’s true. CN at least I know understands history somewhat. He gets at one level all wars are pre-determined. But that military indoctrination is for life.
I don’t really give a shit. Let them invade SK and turn it into one big Elvis museum. It doesn’t mean we have to go to war.
Yes, your clearly educated and are the best rational representative of your people. You got it right, and history has gotten it wrong. We admit our defeat to your superior insight.
His Missile technology appears to be Russian. How do I know? Look at the picture… he can target any country in the region except Russia… including the whole of China, which is convenient for Russia given the Cold War between the two countries that have been going on and off the last few decades. How convenient for the Russians. He just is barely able to reach the Midway-Hawaiian chain if the outer most edge of that screen is any evidence of his missile capacity. Or, that can be the worst poster on his wall ever, I’ld rather Heidi Klum myself personally.
This idea that it’s ‘Us vs. Russia’ has to be one of the most outdated modes of thinking I’ve seen in a while.
It’s Us vs. Corporations.
They obviously want to see us to go to war. But it’s not like Russia is plotting to ‘take us over.’ That doesn’t even make sense anymore. We’re past all of this.
Also, given that they might want to invade S. Korea, why now?
They haven’t attacked S. Korea yet, so why now? Funny how this ‘intel’ coincides with the fact that Western influences want there to be a war now.
The disturbing reality, beyond any threat N. Korea might pose is the realization that we have no way of really knowing. We cannot trust the MSM at all, and there are not too many alt journalists going into N. Korea.
Gimme a half billion dollars and I could make Americans think that we need to invade Poland.
They pose a very serious problem on the Korean peninsula.
I never stated much of a threat to American or Canadian land.
If you think North Korea doesn’t pose a threat to the ground level of the Korean peninsula, then that is simply a matter of you not knowing enough of the logistical intelligence information - which is understandable.
Speaking from someone that has sat in on multiple four star General briefings on the matter in South Korea, I can assure you there is a real threat on that peninsula.
Good thing nothing that happens in the West, especially with regards to why we should go to war, really has to do with what happens in that peninsula.
I mean I could be wrong. Prove me wrong. Just tell me why I am in danger, and why I need to care about going to war with North Korea. I’m not saying that we unequivocally should not; I am saying that it’s really fucking hard to find a reason if you’re not allowed to call on the polemic ravings of people in the MSM.
Give me a common sense reason. Not common like the sensibilities of the average person. I mean something that is going be more or less self evident.
No, I didn’t say we are in danger; I’ve been rather clear about that.
I just spent a good amount of time last night going over why it’s not really too much to worry about with my wife last night (we live in Alaska and she was getting a bit bothered by the news’ way of stating the “facts”).
Instead, I said that they do pose a serious threat as a ground invasion on the Korean Peninsula.
Since America has several military forces actively deployed in South Korea, that will mean that should North Korea go for a war with South Korea in open conflict, then the United States will be fighting.
That fight, surprisingly, will actually be challenging.
We would normally think that we can simply kill North Korea easily due to the massive difference of technology, but there are several other factors involved in North Korea than simply technology.
I outlined some of those forms of concepts in my original post here.
I’m really going on a limb here in detailing some of this stuff, but I’ll try to dance the fine line between what I am and am not permitted to divulge according to my agreement with non-disclosure of such matters.
North Korea has enough mortar fire capacity to fire one shell every 1 hundred yards, every minute, for 24 hours across the entire span of the DMZ.
If they concentrated that firepower on Seoul, which all mortars are easily within range to do so, then Seoul would simply cease to exist.
North Korea is impossible to invade, worse than Vietnam.
They have been building what I call the, “real North Korea”, for around 60 years.
That is, all military and industrial complex systems in North Korea are actually underground.
Ever look at North Korea at night from a Sat. photo?
Pretty much zero lights at all.
That’s because everything underground can continue without anything above ground being turned on.
The geological structure of Korea in general makes penetrating the ground and looking at where they are next to impossible.
We simply cannot accomplish it, even with our technology.
There’s one primary rail system in South Korea and it’s vital for moving civilians, the wounded, troops and battery around.
The road systems in South Korea are absolutely terrible. It can sometimes take you nearly 2 hours to go one mile or less, and no road systems are planned road systems; they are ad-hoc almost entirely.
The building codes are not enforces or well regulated in South Korea, so buildings are very capable of being completely destroyed and killing massive amounts of people.
This is a real threat as most people live in very, very tall apartment complexes.
If North Korea invaded South Korea on foot, it is estimated by our military that they would stand a reasonable chance of being able to reach Jeonnam within 3 days; and this estimate was formed prior to 2nd ID being redeployed over to Iraq and several United States bases shutting down (this was back under Bush era).
Meaning, we have even fewer resources in South Korea now than we did when the estimate saw it as plausible for North Korean ground forces to reach the southern tip of South Korea rapidly.
Essentially, the United States’ basic concept of a plan is to attempt to stall North Korean forces as much as possible; to slow them down.
This method banks on the estimate that North Korea lacks appropriate provisions and only has enough provisions in ammunition and food to supply a ground advance for 3 to 5 days.
It is then assumed that North Korea would want to push as quickly as possible, in a blitz of sorts, to reach the southern tip of South Korea rapidly as well as seize Seoul up north in South Korea, and take over the rail system so that re-provisions could be trafficked using South Korea’s existent resources.
If they are able to accomplish this, then a very, very large problem occurs as the only real stopping force against their just massive ground force (in a very tiny area, keep that in mind) is their inability to keep a supply chain running with only North Korean resources.
Oh.
Also, the North Korean soldiers are psychotic.
By that, I mean like Nazi SS psychotic.
The US government is stalemated by the fact that North Korea has underground structures? I don’t think so.
You realize the US is capable of causing earthquakes and most likely portals to Mars. Like I said, this isn’t the Cold War.
You’re thinking ground invasion and all this antiquated stuff. If I were you I would tell your wife to relax. We might go to war with North Korea, but like every war the US has engaged for the past 100 years, it will be offensive.
North Korea has always been like that. We’re talking about this now, as I said, because the news told us to. And because that movie has just come out depicting what you are talking about. Why do you think they would put out a movie with that plot line?
I know the Jong Ils (sp?) have said a bunch of things, but is there a quote from the son that says, “I plan to attack the US through a ground invasion?”
I would be interested to see that.
I disagree with your estimate of US military technological capability, but that doesn’t much matter.
If the event occurs, then you’ll see the challenge.
I resort to this stance because your concepts of military tactics are unrelatable to my familiarity, but I think it rather simple to know as the event only needs to occur to see what I mean.
No, I’m not aware of any statements for ground attacks to the US.
NK only stands as a sizable ground force while in the confines of Korea.
Once you remove the fight from there, then they almost immediately lose.
Which is why they are no actual threat.
They are a threat to South Korea; which was my only assertion of threat.
What isn’t a threat to South Korea?
Hell, probably the best way to “protect” South Korea is to air drop a few million iphones (and solar chargers) with free time on US based servers.
I don’t understand your question; I said NK is a threat to SK.
One would hope the social blindness in NK isn’t so bad that dropping iPhones wouldn’t work…anything’s worth a shot.
Paper flyers worked in the first gulf war, why not 21st century-ify it?