Originally Posted by Courtney203

They can't deliver a nuke at this time. Will that change, yes.

Do I think they care for their own, no. But they do care for their military. It is the only thing that keeps the South from liberating the North.

Originally Posted by Atlas

Conventional warfare with the norks is unrealistic, Nuclear warfare with them leads to nuclear warfare with China, quite possibly.

The only tenable way to deal with this is diplomatic or economic pressure on China. The norks are the client state of the Chinese. Anything they do is with the permission of the chinese, IMO.

If they did something crazy like actually lobbed a missile at us, we'd have to flatten them, god forbid. That could easily lead to a world war.

Originally Posted by WanRen

North Korea can be defeated with conventional warfare, just like Saddam's million men army proove to be no match against "mother of all bombs".

Applying the same initial offensive thrust as they did in Iraq but with more added fire power will cripple and destroy the entire NK military in a week.

Originally Posted by Atlas

Can be? yes, but are we willing to risk millions of friendlies in SKorea?

I think not. It's possible, but to be avoided at all costs. You also don't figure in whether China would intercede, as they did in the last Korean conflict.

Originally Posted by wyly

no one knows what they are capable of, and no country is going to gamble they do not have the means...as I posted earlier the Bushnuts all said Iraq had WMD...

South Korea has no wish to get in a war becuse no one really has any idea of how strong the N Koreans are, they would wish a peaceful merger but really as long as the NK's stays on their side of the border that's fine too...they do know NK is very well prepared in hardened dug in positions, speculation has it that NK has vast underground military supplies deep underground with tunnels reaching into SK, again it's speculation as no one knows for sure...the death toll in a conventional war would be staggering should either side invade and based on traditional military defensive vs attacking odds neither side likely has enough troops to successfully invade the other...

Originally Posted by WanRen

The risk will be higher if NK is to allow to launch the initial attack. The best way to reduce such risk is to attack with over whelming fire power a modern blitzrieg.

NK have refuse to talk have refuse to act civily and have openly threaten war. SK and her allies should take NK threat seriously and take the initiative of giving NK the ultimatum to change their ways or surrender or face war.

China under the CCP interceded in the last Korean war because Gen. MacArthur of the USA after defeating and conqeuring NK unifiying the Korean peninsula decided to invade mainland China to defeat the CCP and restore the ROC control of mainland China. In fact USA troops were already inside Chinese territory when the red army launch their suprise attack and drove the US troops back into NK territory and continue to push them back, under the cover of winter with zero visibility that prevented the US to use their air power. Snowy roads that prevented troop movements. After the weather cleared, US military were able to push the red army back.

Under the present circumstances, chances are China will not interfere as long as the borders are secured and the USA do not interfere with the China-Taiwan issue and other internal issues of China.

NK is becoming to much of a liability to China it will be China's best interest to have a stable and prosperous neighbor such as SK.

China has prosper because of it's trade with Japan, Taiwan and the USA. A united Korea under the SOuth Korean regime will be a plus for China. That is something that China's government should think about.

Originally Posted by Atlas

Wishful thinking on many fronts.

We have not exhausted reasonable diplomatic means yet, and by that I mean with China, who is the surrogate parent of the Norks.

When you tak about blitzkrieg I don't think you understand the scope and logistics that would be necessary to overcome their conventional arms, much less any chem,bio or rad weapons they may have.

There is no way to secure the border between NK and China adequately to prevent the millions and millions of refugees who would flee north.

MacArthur never invaded China. Never crossed the Yalu river into China. He wanted to. In fact, he wouldn't take no for an answer. That's why Truman canned him. For insubordination.
He said "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away ... Good-bye."

Originally Posted by wyly

plus they've had 50yrs to prepare hardened shelters to shelter most of the population, many shelters according to some sources are bomb proof as well as nuke proof...as well as an extremely strong air defense, many layers of SAMs of various ranges...IMO it's a very risky venture thinking this is a walkover...