Posted on 10/15/2006 6:58:44 PM PDT by blam
Pause and reread my post.
Apparently, you've been playing too much military games on PS2.
NK Army
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/army.htm
You can also find info at this site on NK AF & Navy
I've been doing this sort of thing longer than you've been alive.
You're hitting on a good point, and the root of North Korea's collapse. Rigid, centralized hierarchies are rapidly eroded when discipline is unenforced.
Let's face it. North Korean enlisted men aren't cooking up these ideas. The penalty for doing such an act would be immediate and lethal, without some top cover.
Their company and field grade officers are okaying this. Not only that, but they're getting used to being able to do whatever they need to do to keep local control. Whether or not the central military commission is unable or unwilling to enforce discipline, the result will be the same.
Might the military central authorities, up to the executive level, be okaying this, or turning a blind eye? Possibly, but again, throwing out military discipline is a dangerous move. You might need it sometime. Even if these moves are directly ordered from on high, as a way to do some creative financing, it makes it clear just how desperate the situation in North Korea really is to everyone involved.
Ambitions military men could take advantage of such desperate situations, when the time comes.
Well, so much for scraping your Navy.Real bright move there.
Little fun fact, here, but the Korean People's Army (KPA) is one of a handful that still fields the T-34 main battle tank. Those tanks are, at best, half a century old.
We were wargaming some stuff out a few years ago, against certain targets in North Korea, and the T-34 popped up on an order of battle chart. Several people in the unit had no idea what they were, and were amazed to find out that they were still around. They were good tanks in the day, and soundly defeated everything the South Koreans, and our own Task Force Smith, initially threw at them. They are deathtraps today.
Their armored units consist mostly of T-72s and T-62. Those tanks are obsolete against what we or the South Koreans have waiting for them. They have almost no fuel for training, and little in the way of spare parts. Their strategic reserves are minimal, at best.
I don't remember their armored personnel carrier types off the top of my head, but without armor leading the way, they'd be sliced to ribbons against the South's defenses. The Korean terrain is murderous, and channels vehicles into narrow valleys, on narrower roads. You'd be better off taking your chances on foot, sneaking through the hills, rather than ride around well known roads in third rate armor.
Their mechanized threat is a joke. The infantry and artillery can cause some trouble, for a while, but they have no staying power. Holding down the trigger until you're out of ammo is a great way to cause chaos, but it won't win you a war.
They had to give up rum. Sodomy and the lash were spared.
It's not like the British have a naval base in Hong Kong anymore...
The threat of mines is almost as effective as the mines.
Folks, Western Europe is a military shell of its former self and we're only seeing the beginning of its military erosion (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6120659,00.html).
It's time for us to wake up to the reality and realize we're on our own.
"...Their mechanized threat is a joke. The infantry and artillery can cause some trouble, for a while, but they have no staying power. Holding down the trigger until you're out of ammo is a great way to cause chaos, but it won't win you a war."
You're forgetting Vietnam (and the will they showed against better equipped American shoulders) and the possibility China could intervene on North Korea's behalf (as it did in the Korean war). NK's army is poor, but dedicated and they might get help from big brother under a war scenario. That counts for a lot.
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Another PWAC (Poster Without a Clue).
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