[fogarty]

14,000 tubes of artillery tends to lend itself to being a good amount of destruction in a short amount of time.

If North Korea invades, all bets are off - there simply isn't the manpower anywhere near to stop them before Seoul. Those 35,000 or so US troops would be little more than speed bumps to the million man army (with millions more in reserves) which is on the border right now.

Right now the entire United States can muster about 12 ground combat divisions - tops. We've decimated our military so greatly that even winning a second Korean War is doubtful.

[NormsRevenge]

To which I say ... Field Tactical Nukes ...

Kevin Curry, correct, most of the Korean peninsula was taken by the NKs, and it was the actions in their rear, ie. Inchon, etc that may have forestalled a complete conventional defeat. I question the resolve of Truman and Eisenhower to wage any wars after the WW2 days. Maybe MacArthur was right.. We should have used whatever was necessary to stem the tide of the Yellow/Red menace. It only set the stage for the 60s and the Vietnam police action/undeclared war. MO

[Steel Wolf]

to the million man army (with millions more in reserves) which is on the border right now.

Another good point. The North Korean military has 1.2 million active duty, with nearly a million on the DMZ, but that's just their invasion force.

As reinforcements, they have several organizations. The Reserves are a full 800,000, and can be used as maneuver units. The Worker-Peasant Red Guard militia at around 3.8 million total manpower, but they are more restricted to their local area. Also, the Red Youth Guards have roughly a million under arms, with reasonalby good basic infantry skills. Sprinkle on another 120,000 or so security personnel, and you have a whole lotta people under arms.

[Thud]

The NKPA is so big because it's a prison camp without walls for young men who might otherwise be troublesome. The NKPA's primary mission is political, not military. It ceased to be an effective ground combat force long ago.

The most it can do now is defend fortified positions. And most of North Korea is a fortified position - they've poured enough concrete in the past 40 years to make Japan's Yakuza green with envy.

And they can fire artillery at pre-planned targets, i.e., Seoul.