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North Korea experts Victor Cha and David Kang posted on the website of Foreign Policy magazine late last month that the North can fire 500,000 rounds of artillery on Seoul in the first hour of a conflict.

If accurate that means NK can fire almost 8,500 shells within a minute at Seoul. Even if all shells are conventional weapons that will kill thousands in Seoul, tens of thousands. 5 minutes in that number goes up to the hundred thousands. 15-30 minutes millions.

There are 24 million people in Seoul. If NK launched shells containing Sarin or some other chemical agent it could be worse.

Their artillery cannot be allowed to fire. The problem is time. If we launched an attack the norks would know we were coming immediately, they would fire. To take out all their artillery conventionally without them firing is impossible.

That’s the problem.

EMP from several stealth CHAMP cruise missiles will wipe out the communications to those artillery units.
The chances of them all getting the order to start the bombardment is small.
The large clusters of artillery units north of the DMZ are prime targets for large weapons,
and we still have Neutron Bombs, and Tactical Nuclear weapons that are easily carried on most of the fighter aircraft we have in the region (aircraft carriers).
Then there's the weapons ROK has along the DMZ.
I think the preemptive strike will be well panned and well coordinated.
Don't forget about what the stealth bombers can do, attacking from a direction that the North is not planning on.
If, by some slight chance, Trump does get permission to overfly China's airspace for the preemptive strike, that'll really reek havoc on North Korea's defensive plans.

Pre other question:

You really should spend some time with the South Korean people.
They're not cowards, and the Korean War is very fresh in their minds.
You should go to their war museums in Seoul and see what the Japanese did to them during World War II.
They WILL fight, and fight very well.

I think Victor Cha and David Kang are exaggerating greatly.

Certainly NK artillery is a major concern, but those numbers are extreme, not plausible. That sort of thing has been repeated because NK boasts about turning Seoul into a “sea of fire” as they put it. However, the vast majority of NK artillery is NOT the largest kinds (170 mm and 240 mm) that can fire 25+ miles, and all of NK artillery cannot feasibly be sited in the very limited border area immediately opposite Seoul (they would have to denude all the rest of their army of any artillery, and then ALL of their concentrated artillery would be rapidly destroyed by US airpower).

So, yes, the threat of a NK artillery barrage is dangerous for SK civilians, but not at remotely the numbers claimed by those authors. There are more reasonable estimates that the initial SK civilian casualties would be in the low thousands to possibly some tens of thousands. Horrible in any case, but probably nothing like the apocalyptic scenario those authors put forth.

" If NK launched shells containing Sarin or some other chemical agent it could be worse.

Their artillery cannot be allowed to fire.
The problem is time.
If we launched an attack the norks would know we were coming immediately, they would fire.
To take out all their artillery conventionally without them firing is impossible.

WRONG !

How many of those north Korean Artillery sites are controlled by electronics (computers) ?
Do you even know about CHAMP and its capabilities ?

Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) ( 2:17 )
defenseupdate

Do you think the artillery south of the DMZ that the ROK has, as well as the United States Army has, is just going to sit there and allow that to happen ?
What do you think their FIRST targets will be ?
Our's as well as the ROK's artillery are already 'dialed in' on those North Korean artillery sites, as well as the barracks that house the North Korean soldiers that man those sites?
Where's your military mind ?