China has more in trade each year with the South that the entire GDP of the north. Even worse, if China jumped in on the side of the North, they kiss the USA and their whole economy goodbye. Speaking of GDP, the North has one of about 25 billion. The South has one about 35 times as big. The south spends 3 times as much on a modern military of 700,000 active duty. And they are buying modern stuff. The North has about 25 million population, the South, 48 million.
Also, the north is one of the few nations still operating MiG-17 and MiG-19s. The South has F-16s and F-15s. We do too, and we also bring F-22s, and B-2 bombers to the party.
This time it wouldn’t be Russian pilots in the newest possible MiGs shocking the world, and endless human waves of Chinese.
All the North could do is one big attack, wipe out Seoul then watch their Air force wiped out in 2 days, and their tanks and logistical tail look like the Iraqi highway of death. They also had another advantage in 1950, surprise. We had a small occupation force there, but in no way expected a war. We were simply caught flat footed with a tiny US force, and almost no ROK force at all.
And a reminder, they have put together 2 nuclear “devices” in a hole. Both were incomplete detonations. We have NO evidence they have even had a successful FISSION device, much less a DELIVERABLE fission bomb. Thats a *very* different animal and technical problem. A miniaturized one is yet another big technical problem. All a nuke does for him is protect him from the Saddam hanging treatment. He becomes invasion-proof.
Last, North Korea is utterly and hopelessly dependent on the South for food, fertilizer, fuel, and cash.
This entire thing is yet another show. He knows Obama is weak and is predisposed to send Hillary to do the Albright routine, and leave him with food, fuel and cash from the US taxpayer.
The proper way to measure the yield of a North Korean nuke, is in US Dollars, not kilotons.