Actually,
North Korea has been preparing for war with South Korea and ultimately the US for better than half a century.

I was deployed in South Korea for a year and a half back in the mid eighties and six months of that was on the DMZ. It was widely understood by troops back then that we were a "speed bump" and that was basically it. Our job was just to slow them down a bit while the South Koreans set up their defense of Seoul and sent as many civilians south as possible and the US deployed the main forces to the far east.

The US Govt. will decide either to fully to fight them on the ground in the south or go in and bomb them back into the stone age in the north or a combination of both. This choice will be determined mainly by the prevailing policy at the time.

The US will have no need to occupy North Korea and it would be very costly to do so. The line of defence would be drawn as far north as possible and everything between it and China would be turned into a wasteland.

It would be a huge loss for South Korea and North Korea.

It would be a huge waste of human life and massive drain on resources for the US and anybody else who helped.

Ultimately it is unwinnable for North Korea so would make no real sense but Kim Jong Il doesn't necessarily care about what makes sense.

For me this part of the "piece" sealed the deal for me as being pure propaganda.

"North Korea has developed special bikes for mountain warfare. Special forces use these bikes for fast deployments on mountains. Switzerland is the only other nation that has bike-mounted special forces trained for mountain warfare."

The U.S. Special Forces have utilized and trained on specialized ATV'S, sand buggies, and motocross bikes since the mid 70's. The person who wrote this knows nothing of our special forces capabilities. My cousin was an aggressor army moto-bike operator in the 80's becasue of his past racing dirtbikes. He helped train our green-berets and other spec ops as well as helped teach 10th mountain trainees how to combat against vehicles used in mountainous terrain.

[edit on 25-6-2009 by djvexd]

If N Korea went to war, they wouldn't have the means to feed their people. They'll just starve to death guarding their trenches.

It funny because if u live in China looking over into N Korea. The whole country looks like a wasteland, while China has modern sky scappers and buildings. You can see the people looking over.

I think the big thing a lot of people forget is that it won't be just the US vs. North Korea. South Korea is far from being a pushover for its brothers in the north. Not only is it of substantially higher quality than the North Korean military, but their numbers nothing to scoff at either. While the total forces in South Korea are very outnumbered it's no where near as bad as it looks as when you're just comparing the US forces stationed there.

I also think it's very likely that we'll see some sort of action from the Japanese Self Defense Force. I'd be willing to bet that they'd push an amendment through their constitution through to all them to go on the offensive. At the very least I suspect they'd be providing an immense amount of logistical support and likely a lot of medical support as well.

I also suspect the possibility of China or Russia launching their own invasions in order to make a grab for North Korea's resources.

Simply put, the odds are highly against North Korea. It's already well known that the quality of their military is exceptionally low, and the kind of coalition that would be raised to fight them could potentially match them in numbers, even outnumbering them by a huge margin if China gets in on the action.

S&F for you OP. I love the armchair warriors on these forums that all claim to know exactly how well armed the NK are nd their battle strategies, and how long it ill take for us to beat them.

It has been nearly impossible for us to plant any intellience on the ground in NK, and all we know about them is what our spy planes can apture from the air, yet a few ATS posters know everything they are capable of. You guys should report your recon to the government. I'm sure they will be overjoyed to know how easy a war with NK is going to be.

True, if they do have any high tech modern equipment(tanks,aircraft,etc.)they sure are hiding it well. I don't think one of the posters gets it yet,
Afgan.- Guirella war, no "hard targets". No miltary bases, logistics lines to attack.
Iraq- Was conventional for the first week or so untill the Iraqi military was defeated, now its also a gurrilla war. The "freedom fighters"/"Terrorists" don't have fixed bases or supply routes that can be cut.
NK- Would be a very conventional war, with large airbases, industrial centers, supply routes and tank depots that could be destroyed in a matter of a few days by both stealth aircraft and cruise missiles from offshore. Economic, military and industrial targets would not last very long.

Response to a post about the US being "rusty" at conventional warfare.
Don't kid yourself. I just got out of the Marine Corps last year. We don't spend all that time and money sitting on our butts all day doing nothing. We still train for conventional warfare, we just supplement it with alot of guirella warfare tactics because of the current wars we are in.

Don't get me wrong, I"m not saying we wouldn't take massive casulties-if we even sent ground troops in. They are a huge destabilizing power in the region and I don't think the US and SK would be fighting alone.
I don't think however that the US will attack NK for no reason yet, they will have to act first(could always be wrong though...look at Iraq).

To be fair though, everything I know about NK I"ve heard from the MSM and a few military intell sources, maybe we've all been fed a spoonfull of horse@##%. But I don't really think so.

Remember the video from the news of the opening of the Iraq war? In Baghdad and around the country they were being bombed by warplanes and cruise missiles. THat would be NK, but on a much more massive scale.
SK would be in a verrrrry bad spot though.....

Sorry about any spelling or factual errors...I've been up all night and my light is off so its a bit hard for me to type at the moment. I welcome any arguements for anyting above I said though.

One last thing. Does anyone think the common NK person would want another war? I suppose many forgot about the Korean war, but if the conventional army was defeated, would they stand and fight a gurilla war? If they did we very much would find ourselves in a positiion like Viietnam, Afganistan and Iraq.

This statement really only shows a goverment that has constructed a army with the primary aim of a conventional defencive force capeability only.There was not much mentioned about there navy or airforce.The rest of the world would proberly be more worried if a country like north korea had a naval streagth simlar to the united states.Unfortunatly that country will never have a navy anywhere near the streagth of the united states.The nuclear force is very limited and the united states are much more advanced in nuclear weapony than north korea.I could not see the north koreans launching a massive nuclear strike against the united states anytime soon.The united states has got very good intellegence about north korea but there not going to admit that anytime soon.Saying too much at this time may comperise cia intellegent angents working inside north korea.

It's pretty clear that America could 'cakewalk' NK ..... right?

I mean after 8 years fighting in Afgan they've totaly beaten the taliban... right?

.... ok jokes aside, after 8 years in Afghanistan not only has America NOT beaten them but they still have the resources to now attack Pakistan. NK has more people, more tanks, more bombs, more firepower and not to mention nukes.... do people realy think America can 'cakewalk' NK when they still cant win the war they started 8 years ago?..... LOLLLLLLLLLL

Americans are funny

"NK Would be a very conventional war, with large airbases, industrial centers, supply routes and tank depots that could be destroyed in a matter of a few days"

Just as Iraq and Afghanistan were. And on Day 3, you have exactly the same problem as there, except NK is much, much better prepared.

Originally posted by Wembley

"NK Would be a very conventional war, with large airbases, industrial centers, supply routes and tank depots that could be destroyed in a matter of a few days"

Just as Iraq and Afghanistan were. And on Day 3, you have exactly the same problem as there, except NK is much, much better prepared.

Exactly... finaly someone that see's sense

they couldn't even spell blitzkrieg that's a good indication to not take the article to seriously man

make no mistake, america might get tied up in diplomacy and have "long"wars, but its not lke we couldnt go and take over and level anyone we wanted to. north korea would fall. quicker if our gov werent goodie to shoes and just flat out stomp sum ass like we should