interesting fact btw - why some north korean people still might hold a grudge against the western world - the british/american bombings in WWII over Germany had an average casualty rate of like 3%, in the worst cases (like Hamburg '43 or Dresden '45) up to 7%.

In North Korea it was 25% - that means out of 7 million people, 1.75 million were killed with bombs and napalm. that might have upset them

You mean they won't use them again.

Not so sure about your references to situations in the Middle East - but it doesn't matter, really. Who might we use as a proxy in Korea? The South Koreans have created a miracle economy and their every prayer is that no war ever comes to destroy it - their big fear always is that the North Koreans will blow dams in the North that have some potential to flood the South without invasion, or that division after division of forces and tanks from the North will emerge from tunnels into their streets and destroy their factories. They keep finding new tunnels every year, and they suspect that they have not found them all. No, they are not hankering for war. They have much more to lose than the comparatively primitive, well-dug-in North does. Our UN allies from the last ground war? It's hard to imagine Australians and New Zealanders doing our very dangerous dirty work for us six decades after the last bloodbath. The Japanese? We only granted them self-rule on the condition, in a constitution that MacArthur wrote for them, that they have no standing Army capable of aggressive action. I don't think any surrogate exists to do what the US longs to do in North Korea. And I don't think a volunteer force - we had draftees in large numbers last time - from the US could do it at a price in money and blood that the American people would judge as acceptable. It's not wrong to think of North Korea as being like ancient Sparta, an entire nation at arms, small but entirely militarized, strengthened in fervor by the sacrifices that even they know they are making for an ideological principle, one that has been woven into them by birth. They are completely brainwashed into unchallenged Marxist thought in a society so xenophobic that no contrary view is ever expressed anywhere. Switzerland's military philosophy always was that even a small nation, if well armed, trained, and possessing a highly motivated fighting force, could make the price of invasions so dear as to deter anyone from trying. That oversimplifies a bit, but that's the core reason Swiss neutrality survived intact against the Third Reich, even when they were surrounded on all sides by the Axis. People much smarter and more knowledgeable than me at the CIA understand all of this, and that's why we will work overtime to avoid direct military engagement on the Korean Peninsula, no matter what they scream, no matter what truce agreements they repudiate, no matter how many islands they shell, or however many tunnels under the DMZ are found. (We have not used surveillance ships since the lesson they taught us with the Pueblo and we have moved to the use of satellites. And that's the real story behind the story about their missiles. The USA is not nearly so scared about their ICBMs launching a nuclear attack on our West Coast cities as much as it is of the North Koreans developing missiles carrying small kinetic weapon payloads - or lasers - or electromagnetic pulse transmitters -that can destroy our surveillance satellites - and our GPS net - and our como net - or render them blind and deaf. Our leaders are quietly worried to the max about Chinese capability of doing that right now. They are worried about the Iranian missile program for that reason, too, far more than any scenario of an ICBM strike against Europe. North Korea enters the space game, too, and it's missiles with orbital launch capability, or the ability to reach the geosynchronous orbit belt that we care about most. It remains our national military primary objective than no nation in the world should have any technical capability of resisting our surveillance or successful unilateral attack.)

US Armed forces, 1,500,00 Active personnel and Reserve personnel about the same 1,500,000

North Korean population about 24,451,285 and rising

The number of military personnel doesn't matter much. You can have ten times as many men in uniform, but if they are poorly armed, poorly lead, and in this case under fed... They have no hope.

Military technology has really changed in the past twenty years, and most countries have barely noticed. The second Iraq war was a great example - the war was won in the first twenty minutes when the US took out all of their communication and command & control - they were blind the moments the bombs started falling. It was quickly downhill from there.

North Korea isn't on the cutting edge of anything. They recently launched their first rocket into space which may or may not have been a success - which is technology that is forty or fifty years old.

if they can construct a hidden base, they could be dangerous (to launch a missile)
it will probably never happen

The loudest one is usually always the softest!

Yep, agree with you there. Seems though its all those pesky bastards on mopeds and nokias with a few IED's that still will not accept it. Perhaps they didn't get the memo

Can't agree. He looks like a real life version of Eric Cartman to me :)

I hope the North Korean "Eric Cartman" tries to launch a missile strike against the US. Chances are the missile will land in the sea instead and Washington can do the world a favor and genocide that god forsaken excuse of a country once and for all and leave a giant crater where it used to be. The world would be a better and safer place if North Korea was wiped off the earth never to be seen again.

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest navy in the world, with a battle fleet tonnage that is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S. Navy also has the world's largest carrier fleet, with 10 in service, one under construction (two planned), and two in reserve. The service has 317,054 personnel on active duty and 109,671 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 288 ships in active service and more than 3,700 aircraf

source

As of 2012 the US Air Force has 332,854 active personnel, 185,522 civilian personnel, 71,400 reserve personnel, 106,700 air guard personnel and a $140 billion budget. It operates 5,484 aircraft, 450 ICBMs and 63 satellites,[6] making it the largest air force in the world.

source

During fiscal year 2010, the Regular Army reported a strength of 561,979 soldiers; the Army National Guard (ARNG) reported 362,015 and the United States Army Reserve (USAR) reported 205,281 putting the combined component strength total at 1,129,275 soldiers

source



anytime there is something to do with north korea threatning with war, all i can think about is the comic where kim jong un throws a bomb on a US generals feet, and take a "come at me bro!" stance

http://media.ft.com/cms/3d80ad6e-0c0...00779e2340.jpg
Can North Korea threaten US? Not really, but South Korea and Japan are in range.

Neither was the Taliban and they did a fine job of changing the world forever using nothing but a couple of airplanes.

The North Koreans don't have to be on the cutting edge of anything. All they need to do is get one nuke off the ground and into Japan or South Korea. Maybe it will get shot down or fall into the ocean, missing its target, or maybe it won't. But all it takes is one and a whole lot of people are going to die.

Personally, I think their weapons facilities should be bombed as soon as possible. They have already made the threat, we know they could do it if they wanted to, and I'm sure the USA has the intel to do it, so why not do a preemptive strike and nip this in the butt before it goes any further? I'm not pro war but in situations like this someone has to do something to prevent massive loss of life in the future.

Wouldn't you?

That's just it - they can't do that. They can't build anything in "secret". We have satellites watching everything they build.

When they go to launch a missile test, we know days in advance because of the activity on such sites.

There's a huge a difference between winning a war and pacifying a nation.

These numbers don't matter today, didn't matter 50 years ago.
You can own nuclear bombs but you are nothing if your people have little or no food.
And USA have absolutely no responsability for people starving in norht Korea.

How did the Taliban change the world "using nothing but a couple of airplanes"?

We can choose to do a preemptive strike which would mean the massive loss of life now in place of massive loss of life in the future...but if we continue to contain them...as we have done for the past 60 years there may never be a massive loss of life.

China will deal with them, they are near the breaking point when it comes to their support of North Korea. China wants no part of any war with the US.

Let's go level that shithole ! TODAY

I didn't say the US would use nukes. I said that North Korea's only bomb(s?) are too heavy for their missiles.

Al-Qaeda is what I meant to say. Assuming you believe the official story.