NK-"We will launch a first strike against the US while the US is still in Iraq..."

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by monolith94
"smuggle one on board a ship & park it in L.A. harbor."
No big loss.

[Dinner]

Come on Kribbler. Even an Angleno like yourself would have to admite L.A. is the worst designed city in the world.

[cia]

Big threat if if the NKs use nuke one on the carrier battle group parked over there and nuke two on Tokyo. Retribution would be swift but the losses are horrendous.
Tunnel, meet Mr. Thermobaric Bomb, Bomb, meet Mr. Tunnel.
And BTW we do have a space-based ABM system.

[Lancer]

NK TODAY: "Any US buildup in Korea and we will reduce the region to ashes."

Well, they're not boring.

I heard this morning that an aircraft carrier (the Stennis?) is heading for Korea...

So, we'll soon know if NK is bluffing, or nuts.

[Guynemer]

Who is to say that they're not both?

[Lancer]

NK TODAY: "If the US deploys more forces to Korea, we will reduce the region to ashes"

The USS Vincent is the carrier on the way. More "troops and planes"-FOX news-are also on the way.

Wish I knew what troops?

[Ned]

Originally posted by GePap
Anyone here you sniff at the threat is a fool. "yeah, 37K US troops can easily defeat 1,000,000 NK soldiers, yeah, cakewalk..." Bullsh1t of the first degree. Still, any initial NK offensive would be stopped, mainly by the 600,000 SK troops along the front in conjunction with US airpower. Still, Korea is the last place the US wants to fight, those damn mountains make our airpower less usefull, and the NK have a way of digging tunnels (US intellienge suspects the NK has several tunnels big enough to fit thousands of troops and equipment, that go under the DMZ and almost all the way to seoul. ) Any war in Korea would make Iraq look like a pitiful sideshow, both in terms of American loss of life, total loss of life, economic losses, economic disruption, so forth and so on. We should pray that it does not happen.

As for diplomacy: no one would back NK: China has much to lose form any war nearbye, specially in spooking foreign investment. The Russians care much more about SKorean trade than NKorea. NK would be alone, and the war would still be short, but extremely ugly.

I agree with this. NK is miscalculating if it expects China to rescue it a second time.

The best chance to avoid war is for China to tell NK that if it attacks, it should not expect Chinese assistence if it begins to lose.

[mindseye]

US intellienge suspects the NK has several tunnels big enough to fit thousands of troops and equipment, that go under the DMZ and almost all the way to seoul.

I read an article recently (Salon.com?) in which the reported personally saw one of these tunnels. He said it was 250 feet below ground level, and that according to the military officials giving him the tour, it was one of fifteen found. One was so large that a jeep could be driven through it. The reporter said that the military suspected there were other, undiscovered tunnels, and that they reached far beyond the DMZ, possibly to the outskirts of Seoul.

[Dinner]

NK has been running similiar statements in the communist controled press for the last 60 years. There is nothing new here except a few western news outlets actually paid attention to what they're saying.

Everything is business as usual.

[MosesPresley]

My two cents.

One of the main reasons we are hesitant to go toe to toe with NK in a shooting war is because that will be a real war. Lots of casualties and lots of time, probably years.

A little off topic: anyone remember the Pueblo incident with NK?

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Lancer

The thing w/ Korea is the NK could erase Seoul w/ arty. The NK has arty out the wazzoo, all of it within range of the SK capitol. It's what makes the SKs so concerned.

Agh, the only ammunition they have is that in their pre-placed ammo dumps on the border (many of which US and SK airpower would make quick work of, along with the artillery itself). After that they'll be fresh out, not only of ammo but of fuel and food. They just don't have the logistics to make any sort of mobile operations into the South; I'd be surprised if they could even hold their own on defense.

1,000,000 men? Yes, one million sets of arms and legs that aren't going anywhere but backwards.

[Grrr]

The thing is that NK knows it's toast, and this will most likely be a last-ditch suicide effort to get into the history books.

A couple of well placed nukes would do a lot of damage though.

[Velociryx]

I agree. The military might of NK, such as it is, is overstated by a vast degree. They've got out-dated equipment, limited supplies, and no real reason to fight hard, *especially* on the offensive.

'bout the only thing they HAVE going for them would be terrain, and that only works to their favor on the defensive.

If they attack, they give up the ONE THING that might make their military hard to deal with. IF they want to keep Seoul under fire, they'll have to leave their guns where they are.

Stationary targets are juicy targets, and I'll bet artillery looks pretty when it's hit by one of those big thumpers we've got.

-=Vel=-