Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Mike F
From everythig I've read, and from talking to a professor who is a recent immigrant from South Korea, North Korea as a nation isn't a thread to start anything. Everything they've done and are doing, from the build up of troops, to the ballistic missile program, to the artillary tubes pointed at Soeul, to the development of nuclear weapons, is all defensive in nature and aimed at providing security against invasion by the west. Kim Jong-Il is happy in his little socialist/communist utopia in Pyongyang and isn't interested in world domination.
The only real threat from North Korea, which may, in fact, be a legitimate reason for military action, would be the sale of nuclear technology to other states or rogue groups as they've done with their ballistic missile technology.
|
I would agree with this, however, they still have a massive amount of main battle tanks, tubed and rocket artillary, massive amounts of special forces troops and commando's and massive amounts of infantry. They also posses a decent mix of long range fighter bombers and interceptors. To say that Kim Jong-Il dosen't have the offensive firepower to clubber the south is somewhat naive.
However I think even Kim Jong-Il realizes that the window for the Liberation of the South is closed. The south posseses a army with more offensive punch, more advanced air ground and sea units, and a army with a higher moral thats better fed and healthier.
Its actually been shown that the North Korean's have done underground atomic weapons testing on a small megaton scale.
The North Korean's currently posses many varients of the Scud missile which is not really useful for launching atomic warheads. but they've also tested the Paeutudan-1 two stage missile which is equivalent to the SS4 solid fuel missile with a range of 2500 KM and the NKSL-1 three stage IRBM with a range of 3000 KM's out of the No-Dong facility. If you go by some logic, the NK's have small arrows (warheads), and they're trying to develope the bow (missiles) with sufficient range to hit all of South Korea.
An excellent book on the subject is called "under the loving care of the Heavenly leader" which covers the history of North Korea under the Kims.
Its an interesting and frightening read.