Yeah, I guess that's right. It must be the Texan in me, but when someone says they're gonna kick my ass, I usually like to proceed straight to the testing phase. :shucks:

I'm not a Texan.... yet... but I feel the same way Neal. Tho a testing phase that wipes them off the face of the earth would be the best way.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if they do try and pull something. And I'd not want to be in their shoes if they do.

"You Can't Fix Stupid. Not even with Duct tape."

I think it's a fairly safe bet to say that South Korea feels the same way. I think that they've gotten so used to the Norths threats and occasional shells that they no longer believe any threat that the DPRK uses.
The only real threat the North poses to the South now is a nuclear one, and that is reduced because they've yet to get the miniaturising stage on a nuclear warhead, so any nuclear weapon would be the size of Fat Man or bigger so it would have to be plane dropped, and any DPRK bomber trying to cross the DMZ would be blown to smithereens.
So basically the South is in the position now where it can say "Well, bring it on" because anything that the North fires at the south can be returned in twice the power, the North has such outdated and badly maintained equipment that any attempt to storm the DMZ would probably stall within fifty miles under ROK and US bombardment. The UN wouldn't even need to get involved unless the PRC decided to intervene on behalf of the North, and it's very doubtful it'll do that since it will be too busy coping with a massive influx of North Korean refugees flooding the DPRK/PRC border.

Cross yer fingers nothing happens. If it does and they start WWIII, it will be the shortest war in history.... and there'll be a big freeking hole where N. Korea used to be.

:haha::haha:

Nah, hold up... I'm OK.

:har::har::har:

They are banking on China and Russia backing them no matter what, but even China and Russia tire of their kindergarten type world policy.

Fat jong Il, needs to go back to his sucker, and leave the governing to non diaper wearing manchildren.

This is how I think any war would go.

The DPRK would need something big to open the DMZ with, there is a possibility that they might use their nuclear weapons to do this with, perhaps detonating them underground to clear the minefields and then marching their forces through the gaps. This will expose their forces to high levels of radiation but this is not something that will particularly bother the DPRKs leadership.
Alternatively they may use tunnels to establish footholds on the other side of the DMZ, but honestly any such footholds would be bombed into oblivion, so I suspect that either a massive artillery barrage or nuclear detonation would be used to clear pathways through the DMZ, or they may just use human waves. If I were the DPRK though I would want to keep the cannon fodder for the area outside the DMZ to locate ROK defensive positions for the elite forces to move up and overrun.
Within the first twenty four hours, approximately twenty to thirty miles will be taken, the ROK will fight bitterly but the sheer weight of the forces they face will force them to fall back.
By this time US forces will be arriving on theatre, with carrier groups on the way. DPRK commandos will be making a nuisance of themselves, sabotaging power grids and the like, but aside from civilian scares there will be little real damage.
With the USAF on station, the DPRK airforce will be denied the skies over the frontline and the killing will begin in earnest. The DPRK may be able to grind another ten miles out of sheer manpower, but soon morale will break and equipment will be attritioned enough that the advance will stop.
At this point the Combined forces will face a decision, when they counterattack, do they stop at the position of the old DMZ, or do they push all the way to Pyongyang and beyond like in 1950?
Either way it will take a few days to get all the manpower and vehicles into position, during which time the DPRK forces in their trenches along the frontline will be hounded day and night.
Then the counterattack will begin, it will smash through the trenches and pour out into the weakly defended flanks with heavy air support. The combination of days of aerial bombing plus US and ROK tanks appearing in their flanks will cause many DPRK troops to surrender, creating a large gap in the DPRK lines which the US and ROK forces will push through.
If Pyongyang is chosen as the destination then there is a risk that the PRC will get involved, if this does occur then what will happen is a large force of PLA armour will cross the DPRK border and head for Pyongyang, there will be no declaration of war by the PRC, but suddenly Kim Jong-Un will fall ill and a general will take over who will sign a ceasefire, and at this point China will, in back channels, urge the US to take the offer of this 'generous ceasefire' and state that PRC forces will be entering the DPRK for humanitarian reasons and that it would be 'unwise' for US and ROK forces to advance any further least they spark a humanitarian crisis, or some such veiled threat.
The US will, much to the annoyance of the ROK, accept this ceasefire and the status quo will return. The PRC will remain in the DPRK for another two or three years in order to make sure that the transfer of power to generals that support the DPRKs position and continuation of the status quo takes place, and it's like that the DPRK will give up its nuclear program during this point and through China (aka loans) pay reparations for any damage caused during the attack by 'rogue generals'. This way China avoids a long drawn out war with the US over the DPRK which will tank both their economies, it avoids a massive refugee crisis on the DPRK/PRC border as thousands of hungry Koreans flood over the border looking for food and work in China, mingling with the people and becoming hard for the state to remove and put back, and it regains a strong foothold in the politics of the DPRK which will behave itself or face removal and replacement by the PRC which will possibly look to maintain bases around Pyongyang with forces ready to act on any potential 'internal instability issues'.

As much as China would want the DPRK gone, it's like an annoying little brother that constantly drags you into its fights, but it a) has an ideological connection to the so-called 'communist' Korean state [and the hardline communists in the PRC would be up in arms if the PRC allowed the DPRK to be erased] and b) has too much to lose from the flood of DPRK civilians across the border.
For that matter, the ROK has a good reason to fear unification, peaceful or otherwise, as it would be like the reunification of Germany only four million times worse when it comes to the differences in living standards and infrastructure, Seoul would be absolutely swamped with North Koreans looking for a place to live, work and be free.

Also:

'Little Man Syndrome'

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ck-d5sno37.jpg
http://www.deviantart.com/#/d5sno37

^ :haha: :haha:

So true .. but they are backed by China, and even Russia, or at least they are used by the latter as long as they are against 'the west'.

Wars thoroughly destroy trade (unless you are the US, in WW1), and with the globalization i wonder if a major power could afford to wage war against another big one. "Asymmetrical warfare", yes.

That is what I wonder too, whether Mutually Assured Destruction by nuclear weapons has been replaced by MAD by trade.

I believe the main use to China they have is....a natural barrier/buffer for the Chinese border.

Against who? The South Koreans?

Actually, I suspect against themselves....they appear to be so insular.

Maybe not them specifically but the point is they do not have control of the south so whether it's the SK's or the US or anyone else it's barbarian land as far as they are concerned and there needs to be a buffer zone to keep it at bay.

China has always tried to control surrounding nations as a buffer against invasion be it military or economic or cultural. They aren't about to allow a united Korea unless they can control the whole of it.

Potentially though, in the long run, a united Korea under ROK rule would benefit the PRC more than having the DPRK as a leech on resources.
If the DMZ came down, the ROK would sink under the flood of DPRK citizens moving south, it'd be like 1989 on a vast scale, the deprogramming that the people of the North would have to go through would be immense and even thirty years down the road there would still be a massive cultural divide between North and South.
Now, someone is going to need to step in and provide cheap materials for building up the former-DPRK, and that someone would be the PRC, which would have manoeuvred itself into a position of being the 'good guy' that helped bring all this about. Plus, the people of the DPRK would trust the people of the PRC more than their own brethren of the south.
It would be a guaranteed workplace for Chinese businesses for at least half a century, perhaps more, and then it would make a good trading partner.
The biggest snag would be American bases, that's something the PRC really doesn't want, but to be honest, I think that if the North and South did unite, the people of the former 'south' would pretty quickly turn on the US if the reunification came about through peace rather than through war...the modern youth of the ROK isn't exactly US friendly as it is. Whether they'd turn on the US far enough to bar them from hosting troops, tough to say, there's a long history of US troops in the ROK, but if the PRC pushed the right buttons carefully, I guess it would be doable.
The big problem that I think the PRC is worried about, more than the future of Kim Jong-Un, is the possibility of hundreds of thousands of DPRK refugees fleeing across the border into China during the fall of the DPRK government, which would place a massive strain on the provinces surrounding North Korea and tank the PRCs economy as unemployment levels would go through the roof and their benefit system would be strained to its limits.
If it could seal the border tight enough, I think the modern PRC would not shed too many tears over Korean reunification.

Interesting theory. You could be right. It does involve a leap of faith on Chinas part but the NK's may force them into it.