I think it's very misleading in the manufacturing capacity. It's got the factories for it, but lacks the materials or fuel to run them.
The US plane probably didn't take evasive action because such recon missions are rather routine. Seeing the MiGs wouldn't be a problem, but the Americans didn't want to turn back just because MiGs were showing up. I guess it was a game of "chicken" of sorts.
Both sides know a war won't break out so easily. Remember that a US Navy recon ship was once taken along with its crew and still war did not break out. Skirmishes between South Korean and North Korean troops and Navy ships used to break out on a regular basis, yet war never broke out.
We all know North Korea will engage in total war. That is the assumption. The question is do they have the material, food and supplies to make them an effective fighting force? Or the training as a whole that is. Will power makes a difference, but you still need the basics.
North Koreans being combat ready is pretty much ignorable. South Korea is combat ready as well.
The American and Korean bases near the border being evacuated is common knowledge. There are tactics on countering this but I won't discuss them here.
And it's Blitz Krieg.
Plus that part of the report assumes that most if not all of the North Korean units will be moving. First of all, those SU-25s will never come very far into South Korea. Not only are their pilots poorly trained, but South Korea will have absolute air superiority along with the Americans. So they can forget about calling in air strikes.
Old tanks such as the T-55 etc. make the bulk of the North Korean armored force. The crews of these tanks again have little or next to nothing in terms of training. The question is, how many of these will actually run? How good of gunners will the North Koreans be? How much fuel do they have? The answer to the last is, not much at all. Remember the tanks don't run on nothing.
" In case of war, the skies over Korea will be filled with fighters in close dog-fights and the A-10s would be ineffective." Couldn't be further from the truth. First of all, the USAF uses the A-10, not the US Army. Great research guys. Dogfights don't happen at the altitudes that the A-10 operates in, which is largely just above tree top level. The skies will not be filled with dogfights and fighters... except perhaps in the first opening day of the war. After that the sky will belong to South Korea and America. Anyone who actually disputes this fact is in a fantasy land.
Tunnels are a real threat though. That is true. Whereas South Korea's airborne assault capability is working to South Korea's favor, the North Koreans have the tunnel option. Because South Korea has air superiority, once detected, these units will suffer heavy casualties since they are concentrated in one spot, cut off from all support. Still enough of them will probably survive to give South Korean and American troops a hard time.
Special Forces. Again the huge number. It seems a little weird that the numbers are suddenly so high. And in this case, counted at 120,000 instead of 100,000. So that raises a LOT of questions.
Biochem warfare.
North Koreans may be prepared for biochem warfare but South Korean troops are even better prepared and equpped to meet this. Not so much with civilians but if the North Koreans use the chemical weapons, the South Korean troops will still survive and probably won't leave much of anything North Korean alive by the time the war's over.
Killing the head of the snake probably won't work, but what they can do still is isolate the snake's head. That is destroy communications relays, jam signals and also issue false orders to the North Korean units.
Manually operated AA means, manually operated. These tend to have very limited ranges and accuracy. Electronic warfare of American and South Korean units are pretty good. Especially the Americans who turned SAM killing into an art in Vietnam. North Korea's AA equipment is pretty much Vietnam era stuff without much improvement. The radar sites are as good as toast. The AA guns won't stop long ranged attacks from missiles. This will make the job from the air harder, but not impossible.
The main problem with the article is that it completely ignores South Korea's troops which is considered by many experts as one of the top militaries in the world.
Not only that, this article depends on North Korea having enough fuel, training and food for the task. Also assumes all their equipment actually works.
The thing about Vietnamese having superior tactics is incorrect. Practically every time Americans met in actual combat with the North Vietnamese, the Americans won. The only time the North Vietnamese did well initially was during the Tet Offensive. And even there the North Vietnamese were defeated in those large series of battles.
So in short, the article is actually a Worst Case Scenario of North Korea vs South Korea and America. To pull it off, North Korea will have to muster resources it's not had in decades. Also a lot of inaccuracies here and there so not a very authoritative source. Some things I don't personally am not sure if I am reluctant to take at face value because it's been wrong on things I know pretty much for sure.
Good contribution but quite a rubbish article I'm afraid.
You don't really expect me to take people who can't even spell Blitz Krieg seriously do you?
By the way I just checked out
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Word to the editors: Ever think about two sides of the argument?