For years I have been reading reports, usually by Korean sources, some NK dissenters living abroad or deserters. And I spent 13 months close to the DMZ monitoring activity back in 1962.
Even then we knew if the Norks cared to, they would remove the top soil half of south Korea a few feet deep just with artillery...they had it even then. It is the most tunneled country in the world and helped N Vietnam with their highly successful tunnel programs.
Arty is mostly self propelled or rails that run deep into the mountains...doors open up and out they come, fire and scoot back if they feel the need. The blast doors close and they emerge when they feel like it. They have some of the biggest arty and surface to surface missiles in the world.
N Korea is impossibly mountainous...with everything of real value hidden in or under a mountain. Nukes would be a little to middling use. Unlike in the flats where the blast can really unfold itself, in deep valleys the blast is largely contained. They are chemically robust and every battalion has radiation, chemical units. They know how to use their chemical radiation suits...so lingering radiation is not going to to keep them out of action.
How effective our planes, which are built for acquiring targets miles away and firing missiles....against close up dog fights by old but highly maneuverable Migs is something that has yet to happen.
They store food, fuel like everything else, underground. It is only up above that the Western press sees and reports starving peasants. (Maybe that is the reason their army, militias are so big...need to eat, join up!) And they have many fake missile sites and phony tunnels. Any air field, or arty position that can be spotted by satellite is probably a decoy; or a 'come to Papa!' trap.
It is reported that the new uranium enriching planet was a complete surprise when shown to a Western expert..because they built it under the canopy of an old site that was thought to be useless. They are a cagy people.
They manufacture their own arms, so have a big military on a shoe string budget...and no troublesome congress or corporate pimps to deal with. Decisions are swift and final...no debate...no holding up of hands. They exist more as a hive than a diverse social arrangement.
For S Korea to go first and bomb them...they need to be prepared to go all the way, because there will probably be no 'bloody nose,' then calling for another cease fire.
First all American bases will be hit hard, either in Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Guam and god only knows where else. The ROK soldiers used to be very tough, and I assume they still are, but somehow I think their rich Westernized life style has made them soft in ways not apparent 40, 50 years ago.
In short N Korea, military, politics and geography make most of our most advanced and promenate fighting styles and weapons much less effective than they would be in other parts of the world.
In other words, our famous strengths are going to be 'less strong and robust' in a war with N Korea. What would work famously in Europe or in the vast spaces of the middle east...will work to our disadvantage there.
It is interesting, I think, that while Iran and other countries want to get their hands on the Russian SS 300 missile defense system...I haven't heard a word about N Korea seeking them out. Maybe they feel their natural geography and arms in hand will be enough and our missiles less effective than they were in the Gulf Wars?
