Can S.Korea handle N.Korea alone?

NK army will not starve to death, I bet everyone here agrees NK has plenty of rice fields right? (emmm, we all like rice :D)

SK cannot win against NK without US aid, NK is a fanatic army and their weapons compared SK are not stone-age stuff. If NK can produce high-tech ICBM and nukes, you bet they are not so bad at conventional weapons either, btw NK can always get some second-rate weapon technology from China and Russia, good enough to face SK.

The real point is:
With fanatic NK army, they can seize Seoul very quickly, and with their nukes they can force SK knee down to surrender.
 
If NK use nukes then they isolate themselves from the world, the US will retaliate and if NK is the agressor i dont think china will intefere, and will china or russia want to become involved in another korean war that will be expensive and will cause a big loss of life? How effective is NK supply chain? if SK strikes quickly and destroys the infrastucture then army groups could well be isolated without food, or enough of it.
 
Shadowalker said:
If NK use nukes then they isolate themselves from the world, the US will retaliate and if NK is the agressor i dont think china will intefere, and will china or russia want to become involved in another korean war that will be expensive and will cause a big loss of life? How effective is NK supply chain? if SK strikes quickly and destroys the infrastucture then army groups could well be isolated without food, or enough of it.

NK is already isolated in the world, does not make too much sense for them to isolate them with another layer.

US will not retaliate since SK will not agree, if USA does, then whole Korean race is rooted out of earth, cannot happen.

China will watch first, if things turn bad toward our N.Korean brothers, we will not sit there and only watch.

NK is so close to Seoul, they need only one day to get in there. Supply chain? They can seize city by city inside SK, no hurry needed (if US not involved, our topic is about NK vs SK).

Korea is a mountainous area, not like desert Iraq, not easy to isolate.
 
I belive that even if N.K has absolite tanks and equipment for the open battlefield the terrain of N.K and S.K is more like Vietnam. And the history is a great tool to look back with. N.K to make an example has not in this time any worse equipment then North Vietnam in 57-75. N.K have even better equipment then Vietnam had in the vietnam war if we compare timelines and weapons. Then if they can take S.Korea alone without U.S support is another question. But my honest answer with a look at the Vietnam war, I would say, yes probably sooner or later. *nod* The infantry only needs two pare of legs to move forward. ;)

Cheers:
Doc.S

:viking:
 
I think you make the key mistake in understanding the sides' will power. South Korea is no South Vietnam.
The only two things they have in common (before South Vietnam fell) was that the first word in their country name is "South" and their northern neighbors are communist.
I guess I've told you everything I could.
South Korea on average has better equpiment (as in quality and also maybe even in quantity considering North Korea doesn't have the money to maintain all its jets and tanks), it has better training, the soldiers are better fed, have one of the most professional officer corps, consistently get great reviews by those who train along side them, is guaranteed to have air superiority in a matter of days (a week max probably), and can deny North Korea the numerical advantage at the drop of a hat.
So that's pretty much everything.
I guess if you STILL believe North Korea will win, there's really nothing else left to convince you.
 
FlyingFrog said:
NK is already isolated in the world, does not make too much sense for them to isolate them with another layer.

US will not retaliate since SK will not agree, if USA does, then whole Korean race is rooted out of earth, cannot happen.

China will watch first, if things turn bad toward our N.Korean brothers, we will not sit there and only watch.

NK is so close to Seoul, they need only one day to get in there. Supply chain? They can seize city by city inside SK, no hurry needed (if US not involved, our topic is about NK vs SK).

Korea is a mountainous area, not like desert Iraq, not easy to isolate.

Why wont SK agree if it guarenees there survival then i expect they would agree, there are still american troops in SK and if they are nuked then the US is involved.
SK like any nation is not daft enough to only have 1 central command centre, theres probably one near Pusan and else where if Seoul is captured, and i believe there moving there capital anyway. The frontline troops of NK need supplies and if SK uses slash and burn and is able to airstrike there supply lines then the NK troops go hungry, especially if they go at the pace i think you think there troops will go at.
China would be an idiot to go in if NK starts the war (if SK does then yes they will go in) they will draw in more countries into the conflict and could possibly start WW3
 
FlyingFrog said:
NK army will not starve to death, I bet everyone here agrees NK has plenty of rice fields right? (emmm, we all like rice :D)

Um. No. They don't have plenty of rice fields, North Korea is experiencing a terrible drought right now, the only people getting fed are the Army and the social elite who get to live in Pyongyang, although they are also starting to feel the pinch, and the US is not going to send aid because it will only feed the Army to keep them in better fighting shape.

FlyingFrog said:
NK is so close to Seoul, they need only one day to get in there. Supply chain? They can seize city by city inside SK, no hurry needed (if US not involved, our topic is about NK vs SK).

Korea is a mountainous area, not like desert Iraq, not easy to isolate.

Yes, Seoul is only 1 day away from NK, IF THEY ARE DRIVING IN A CAR WITHOUT ANY RESISTANCE BY THE SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY! Do you think they are just gonna let the N. Korean troops stroll through their lines and take over Seoul? The Korean War has changed over the last 50 years, South Korea had little to no defenses when North Korea invaded in 1951, now South Korea is ready for an invasion, North Korea may capture Seoul, but they would have to kill over 400,000 heavily armed South Korean soldiers and lose at least 500,000 of their own soldiers, minimum, and then they would have to hold out against the inevitable South Korean counter attack, the whole time they would be using up precious supplies of Fuel that they can ill-afford to lose.

Capturing Seoul is no guarantee of victory buddy, NK captured it twice in the 50's and yet we still pushed you back above the 38th parallel.

Flying Frog, you are ofcourse aware that if North Korea uses Nukes the US will glass North Korea and China if they try to intervene. Nukes are not used os an offensive weapon, they are used when defete is imminent. China would be fool hearty to aid North Korea if they used Nukes, you would have all of Western Europe getting ready to invade from South Korea and Russia might even decide that you were crazy for aiding North Korea and they would invade you, the world's largest tank force would be bearing down on Beijing and you would have a good chunk of your military near the Korean border. Not a pretty scenario.
 
Flying Frog, North Korea doesn't have much of anything that's food.
Rice paddies are in South Korea. Traditionally, South Korea had more fertile land suitable for rice farming anyway. North Korea's suffered from droughts, then floods so basically it's a mess. Same with South Korea in terms of the floods but South Korea was able to bounce back pretty quick.

Correction about Seoul from border.
It's not 1 day, it's rather more like 2 hours unopposed.
The bummer about this is going to be high civilian casualties, but remember it's not like this is the only city that exists in South Korea.
But I'm sure there's a lot of World War II veterans that can tell you about trying to take cities. Then try it against an army that has better equipment, training and air superiority. It's suicide.
 
During disaster years NK has problem with food, but normally NK is self-sufficient I am pretty sure. btw China sends foods to them every year, anyway they are our close brothers.

Seoul has more than 10 million citizens, it is 1/3 of SK population. If Seoul is taken by NK, then SK is therotically and practically losed, therefore NK would simply put at least 50% of their army manpower to conquer Seoul.

Btw, when taking Seoul, there would be large number of NK SF put in, also I am pretty sure in SK there are a lot of pro-NK and anti-USA people and they would like to see NK unite whole Korea.
 
Why would there be many pro-NK citizens, they live in a rich, prosperous country where there lives are not directly controoled by the state!
SK has a population of 48.9 million, NK has a population of 22.2 million.
If NK puts 50% of its army in seoul it would only take airstrikes/missile attacks to take out 1/2 an army. and there leaving pyongyang open to attack from the rear!
 
Flying Frog, I have no idea where you read all that propaganda but it's a bunch of rubbish.
North Korea hasn't been self sufficient, ever. It relied on goods traded with the USSR and China in order to keep its economy afloat. Since the fall of the USSR, North Korea's situation went SOUTH big time. The flood really screwed things up. Before that they were doing alright, but they never really improved. They always pretended they were self sufficient but that is far from the reality. Truth is there are VERY few countries in the world (and may I say, none actually) which are truly self sufficient. This includes both the US and China. By the way, didn't you say China sends food to North Korea? I mean like... you mean for free right? Now why would a self sufficient country need to take in any food?
There are those psychos who want the Korean peninsular to be united under North Korea's flag, but people who are THIS extreme are few and far between. There simply won't be enough of these to make any difference. Anti-American does not mean pro-North Korea.
I guess a question would be, how quickly can North Korea take Seoul?
Special Forces by Air? It's going to be shot down like crazy because South Korea will have air superiority from the minute the war starts. Not to mention the SAM networks and other AA units. Bust through the lines? That's going to take a long time, if it works at all because the NK Commandos will have to do it with the artillery being the only support. Their Arty may not last very long, and whatever armor manages to make it to their aid will be outmatched by what South Korea can muster against it. Also they'll be blown up from air strikes.
So the only reasonable method of getting enough SF into Seoul would be on FOOT. And walking down from the border to the city unopposed itself would take ages. Of course if you have air strikes, artillery strikes and infantry in your way, it'll be much harder.
Seaborne infiltration? You can only take in so many with submarines and if you try to send anything over by ships, then South Korea's ships will blow them up. Or Air strikes!!
Not to mention for armor doing an invasion, the invasion paths are very limited. Because of rough terrain and rice paddies that will stick your tanks, the tanks will have to stick to the road, rendering them very vulnerable to all kinds of attacks.
 
13th. Bear with Frog. He buy's the party line; hook line and sinker. He's never been to the ROK. Never met ROK Marine's, Tigers or White Horse. He knows no one with the commitment to their country that they have.
 
OK, let me make my points clear:

1. SK is surely superior on all fronts than NK

2. SK would not invade NK, since SK does not have the WILL to war.

3. NK would like to invade SK and unite Korea since they have the WILL.

4. NK can capture Seoul despite huge losses on troops.

I know you want to argue about point 4, but be realistic, NK does have to ablility to take Seoul.

5. NK has nukes, that kicks everything SK has in house.

Btw. I said China sends foods to NK in disaster years not EVERY month normal years.
 
You put way too much hype on will. For some reason I dont think SK is gona roll over and submit just because NK has the will to attack. It would be great if war was that simple but it isnt.
 
To FlyingFrog:

Do you think only commies have the will to fight?

We are not doubting that NK can take Seoul, they just can't hold it.

South Korea's nuclear programs back in the 70's were at the same state of developement that North Korea's is now. SK says they stopped there, but who knows.

North Korea may have nukes, but how are the going to get them to their targets? Any missiles they have could be shot down by SK, any truck they loaded it onto would likely be shot up, and any boat they loaded it onto would likely be stopped.

Can you prove that NK has nukes? NO! They say they have nukes, but you guys have a bad track record right now and no credibility. They have not tested a nuke, they have not detonated one, they do not have any.

If North Korea has to resort to using Nukes they will have essentially conceded defeat. North Korea can not defeat South Korea in their current state. South Korea has a better chance of defeating the north but that is still unrealistic.

BTW: Your biasness was made obvious the moment you made this topic. "Can South Korea handle North Korea?" A better topic title would have been "Who has the upper hand on the Korean Penninsula?"
 
SK "hasn't the WILL to war" is because they are peaceful where the North is not. They want reunification under peaceful terms there the North does not. They have a powerful economy where the North does not. A nuclear strike on SK would lead to a US counter-strike, especially if it involved some Americans getting killed.

If you admit that SK is superior, how would they manage to take Seoul?

Why does China support them?? They're like an insane rabid dog who can only knows attack, kill and destroy. SK is pushing for peaceful reunification. NK, for some reason, is pushing a nuclear agenda that has further damaged hopes of peaceful reunification. Obviously, they've become a buffer zone between China and what it views at "Western power", but currently they are more of a liability that anything. Truth of the matter is, China could do a lot to get NK to behave themselves and hasn't.
 
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