Can S.Korea handle N.Korea alone?

"The North has perhaps the world's second-largest special operations force (55,000), designed for insertion behind the lines in wartime. While the North has a relatively impressive fleet of submarines, its surface fleet has a very limited capability. Its air force has twice the number of aircraft as the South, but, except for a few advanced fighters, the North's air force is obsolete. The North--like the South--deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, along the DMZ. Several North Korean military tunnels under the DMZ were discovered in the 1970"

Just some background of North Korea military

LINK ------ http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Military-of-North-Korea
 
Yup, it's that Special operations force that I was showing concern for. The creme of that crop is absolutely stunning. Special operations units may not come finer than them.
But the question arises about the rest of them.
My personal belief is that the rest of the group are probably excellent Ranger quality soldiers, so that's going to be tough. Crazy Koreans in war have pulled of some stunning victories, especially South Korean troops in Vietnam... in one case involved 13 South Korean Marines charging into thousands of North Vietnamese Army soldiers, losing 2 men while wiping out a NVA regiment, mostly in hand to hand combat (Source: http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/South_Korea/Default2.html ). I would expect similar aggressiveness from the North Korean commandos.
North Korea's also known to screw up numbers a lot

North Korea has numbers in hardware, but don't have the juice to run them for very long.
I think what North Korea will do in event of war is try to get as many of these units working as possible for shock value, hoping they'll demoralize and perhaps pull off positive results for them and hope their land forces of infantry can save the day.

It is almost certain that North Korea has commando cells in South Korea waiting for a wakeup call from the North.

AsianAmerican said:
"The North has perhaps the world's second-largest special operations force (55,000), designed for insertion behind the lines in wartime. While the North has a relatively impressive fleet of submarines, its surface fleet has a very limited capability. Its air force has twice the number of aircraft as the South, but, except for a few advanced fighters, the North's air force is obsolete. The North--like the South--deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, along the DMZ. Several North Korean military tunnels under the DMZ were discovered in the 1970"

Just some background of North Korea military

LINK ------ http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Military-of-North-Korea
Click to expand...
 
I still wonder about those undground tunnels.... I bet you there is one or two tunnels connecting straight into Seoul or other parts of the country.... I heard their Special Forces are "hardcore" well trained and yeah that would suck if there are sleeper cells in South Korea.
 
I can guarantee you there are sleeper cells in South Korea.
There will be also small numbers of idealistic (and crazy) South Koreans who will go and help North Korea. Once discovered they'll probably get beaten to death by everyone around them though.

I would say that there are tunnels out there that haven't been discovered.
However, if the North Koreans did that, it may turn against them. That would mean there are large numbers of North Koreans in a small place and maximum firepower will be poured onto the position. This will lead to heavy casualties to valuable special operations troops.

AsianAmerican said:
I still wonder about those undground tunnels.... I bet you there is one or two tunnels connecting straight into Seoul or other parts of the country.... I heard their Special Forces are "hardcore" well trained and yeah that would suck if there are sleeper cells in South Korea.
Click to expand...
 
AsianAmerican said:
I still wonder about those undground tunnels.... I bet you there is one or two tunnels connecting straight into Seoul or other parts of the country.... I heard their Special Forces are "hardcore" well trained and yeah that would suck if there are sleeper cells in South Korea.
Click to expand...

Yes, the tunnels do not have a one way valve on them though, it is not like only the North Koreans use them. US and S. Korean listening devices have been keeping track on N. Korean tunnels, I bet their are explosives placed over most of the tunnels that would be blown within minutes of a declaration of war, oops, I mean within minutes of the next attack of this 53 year long war.

55,000 Special Operations Forces, good for them, but look at how poorly trained the Regular Army is, I can't believe that the Spec. Ops. can be all that great if A. Their are so many, B. North Korea can not afford to support them for long and their regular Army is limited in their ability to help the Spec. Ops. C. South Korea has a large Coast Guard that would probably detect any sea borne insertion before more than 3,000 troops could be landed. D. People will notice a hole suddenly open up in Seoul and N. Korean troops suddenly pouring through.

Last time I read about the Korean conflict, and this was 4 years ago so things may have changed, South Korea's Army was split into 3 groups, 1 Army Group defended North of Seoul, 1 Army Group defended Seoul itself, and 1 Army Group protected all of South Korea south of Seoul.
 
Their special operations team... the top of their group has been proven to be very good at what they do.
Remember that submarine incident? It turned out as a failure because of... well... like I said, mechanical failure. South Korean troops arrived on the scene in time and slaughtered the enemy. There's rumors that the submarine crew members were lined up and shot but whatever, serves them right.

South Koreans took most casualities against the commandos when in persuit of them. It was here that the commandos were known to have exceptional marksmanship, managing to shoot a few South Korean troops while fast roping down from their Black Hawks.
The ones who did engage with the troops were killed though. Maybe one or two got away...
 
I Did Not Know North Korean Special Ops Were So Dangerous.....

"Such are the ways of North Korea’s Special Operations Force, an army with the killing skills of Navy SEALs but large enough to populate a small city. U.S. military estimates put the SOF’s ranks at more than 100,000, making it the world’s largest commando force by far. Most soldiers couldn’t handle even one of these warriors in a foxhole. Well-schooled in the martial arts, they can take on several opponents at once with their bare hands. With a sniper’s rifle in those hands, they are said to be able take down more than a few moving targets – at 200 meters – in 15 seconds"

Link--- http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/eddesk.nsf/All/2C6FD2E6CFD31487CA256CAC007E8A05
 
Like I said, the best who get to fight their enemies abroad.
We don't exactly know how good the big chunk of these guys are. No doubt the best are absolutely superb. We just don't know what the vast majority are like.

Right now North Korea is weak. They may be playing this according to Sun Tzu's Art of War. When weak, pretend to be strong. They know we know little about their special operations unit. While satellites can count tanks etc. it cannot measure the ability of a soldier. There is a pretty good chance this could be one of the most incredible deceptions in modern history.
 
I still think this is a point less argument because China and the US will intervene, and China and the US do not want to fight each other. I will be honest, the thought of fighting China scares me more than Russia. I don't think either will be happening soon but still, China has the motivation to fight a long war, the Russians I feel are to demoralized to carry out a long, hard fight.

I don't know about you guys, especially the ones who are in the area of Korea or China, but from what I have seen China does not even want to help North Korea, they are not sending near the amount of supplies that they used to, or that they could. I can't blame them, Kim Jong Il so way to controlling, the Chinese are given an extrodinary amount of freedom be comparison.

Someone earlier compared me to MacArthur. Thank you. I will never complain about benig compared to MacArhur, or Patton, both had the foresight to see who the future enemy was, Patton wanted to keep going across the Elbe and into Russia, MacArthur wanted to invade China, alot of military commanders now realise that the differences between China and the US are to great, war is inevitable, the sooner the better for the US, China would want to stall as long as possible.
 
America's intervention is pretty much a 100% guarantee. China might intervene but chances of intervention are very high.
Just when you thought this flash point was over with...
 
hmmm....

I think initially the South Koreans will win becasue of the technical advancement. But what if the attrition build up over times? Do SK civilian have the tenacities to defend SK? Democracy can soften people with its good living tho.

Alos, how 13 guys killed 400 VCs? I mean not 400 soldiers ran out of ammos at once and start fist to fist against the SK soldiers. Is this unit named Tiger Unit that mentioned mcuh in the U.S.?

Did SK make a movie of it? Does the movie have subtitle? I love to see it.

Here is a link to discuss about the 13 SK Soldiers story in vietname.

http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/74-572.asp
 
Attrition, in the long run, favors South Korea because they have a larger population. Obviously, both sides will enlist as many people as possible in a full-scale war.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
Like I said, the best who get to fight their enemies abroad.
We don't exactly know how good the big chunk of these guys are. No doubt the best are absolutely superb. We just don't know what the vast majority are like.

Right now North Korea is weak. They may be playing this according to Sun Tzu's Art of War. When weak, pretend to be strong. They know we know little about their special operations unit. While satellites can count tanks etc. it cannot measure the ability of a soldier. There is a pretty good chance this could be one of the most incredible deceptions in modern history.
Click to expand...

Weak and *very* concerned for the future. Look at it this way. Their only ally the Chinese are swiftly moving to a capitalist economy which will explode in the next few years. Why do you think all the world's biggest companies are desperate to get into China? Look at the recent Grand Prix held there which in many ways was a backdoor into China for many big Western industries. How do you think this makes the North Koreans feel when their only ally is moving towards the very ideology they so desperately hate.
 
North Korea is not based on Chinese Communism, it was built by the Soviets. The Chinese and Soviets never got along that well, Mao always wanted more supplies from the Soviet Union and Stalin was not very trusting of anyone. It was the collapse of the Soviet Union that doomed the North Korean economy, which was very heavily dependent on aid from the USSR.

And once again, Kim Jong Il is crazy, not like "Woah, did you see what that guy did? He is crazy man!" but like clinically insane. Look at what he has done to the country, he made them into basically a cult, worse than the Nazi's.
 
Like it...

Like Damien said, Korean and Chinese communism are different. Chinese never really liked the Soviet system because it was very rigid and focused on urban area when most area belonged to rural.

So, Mao replaced the Soviet model with his during the Famous Long March.

At this time, I don't think China is a big ally of N.K. because of the change in economic status and eventual political reforms.

I think N.K. leader should really thinking of economic reform and the well-being of its people. Feed them first.

However, I am wondering why the U.S. wont sign an agreement of carrying out pre-em strike with the N.K.? If the agreement can help N.K. to soften up its stands, why not?

N.K. is really alone on this issue.
 
Possibly the best thing that South Korea could do is go ahead and run the arms race with the North and run them into the ground with with their superior production capabilities and wealth. Once their dreams of invasion and conquest are thoroughly dashed, perhaps they'll consider a more peaceful solution.
 
N.Korea is already considering economic reform. They are trying to set up a economic free zone to be run by a Chinese bussiness man (he is now in prison but will be freed soon).
 
FlyingFrog said:
N.Korea is already considering economic reform. They are trying to set up a economic free zone to be run by a Chinese bussiness man (he is now in prison but will be freed soon).
Click to expand...
North Korea seeking reform is certainly encouraging. Who is this businessmant in prison anyways?
 
This Chinese business man is Yang Bin, 40 years old, with some 2 billion dollars.

He was arrested due to political reason (but they say it is about tax problem) after he was pointed to be the Govenour of that Free Economic Zone by N.K. president Kim.

He is sentenced to 15 years, but will be freed end this year or so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top