[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Agreed, working with China rather than against it is key here, but the question is, is the US willing to do that?

Oh I think we are willing to work with anyone. That is a hallmark of America. Our greatest allies are Brittan and Japan: once two of our greatest enemies. France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Mexico we have all been at war with them and been allies with them. We armed the Vietcong before we fought them, We armed Iran before we bombed them, same with Iraq. For better or worse we will work with anyone who furthers are interests and our interests include a Korean peninsula where it is safe to play Starcraft without the threat of No-dongs raining down on you.

Originally Posted by vienna

NK has a standing army of over 1.1 million with a reserve of over 4.7 million and they are all, relatively, in the same place, not spread over vast areas or in armed conflicts like the U.S. and its allies. An assault on SK would literally be the opening of the flood gates supported by armor, artillery, and air support going full-out (or in poker terms, “all-in”).

I would not go by numbers. Most of their troops are poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly fed. Look at the Gulf War where there was little ground fighting except for a 7 or 8 engagements (all one sided except for the first). Iraq had half a million troops in the South (all told their force was close to a million split on four fronts). The Coalition force (also a million but only 3/4 "reliable forces", read: NATO forces and a sizable portion of them Naval based) demoralized them and walked over them with less than 400 troops dead.

Originally Posted by Oberon

He could try going over it, his wooden aircraft would make a low signature on the border radar systems, however again, there's the problem of numbers, most likely the AN-2s...if they can fuel enough of them...would be used for commando raids.

The stealth of the An-2 has been exaggerated. Its real advantage is its ability to fly at low altitudes, at night it would be suicidal to try (very few PVNGs in North Korea), in the day everyone with stingers would be shooting at you (there have been cases where An-2s were shot down by Hueys armed with automatic rifles). Plus any troops that land would lack heavy weapons and vehicles.

He could try blasting his way through, detonating a nuke under the DMZ would clear any mines and opposing forces out of the way...but then you've got only one clear exit route which would turn into Koreas own 'Hells Highway' through constant air bombardment.

Again that's either one 8 mile corridor or 8 1 mile corridors for troops with minimal/poorly made CBRN gear. Not to mention we can re-mine it with FASCAM.

Amphibious assaults around the DMZ are out of the question because the DPRKs surface navy is...lacking in the essential equipment, shall we say.

I would not count this out completely for the outlying islands. The DPRK converted a large number of PT boats in to fast LCPs. And they have a large number of submarines used for commando operations. Best defense against those would be coast watchers who can call in arty or a few platoons of marines.

If I had to guess...and this is pure guesswork here...I'd say that the front line will get this far:

If I was the South I would try to hold them at the river just south of the DMZ (the Imjin River, the British delaying action there in '51 cost the Chinese 10,000 men) by using mobile mine laying systems and large numbers of USAF B-52 sorties dropping CBU-97s and JADAMs. A few copperhead rounds guided in by a drone could end the North Korea offensive right there if done right, eliminate any attempt a bridging or crossing on barges and any mechanized invasion ends there. Then there is cake...

By this time, US reinforcements will be on the scene. DPRK subs and mini subs will try to hit the carrier fleets but most will be lost in the process, others though will be used primarily as commando landing craft, and will be hit by coastal sub-hunters.

US and Allied (read: Japan) naval forces could be on the scene in the Yellow Sea in 24 hours, but our carriers would most likely be operating in the Sea of Japan and in the deep waters south of Korea in the East China Sea aprox. 500 nm from the nearest North Korean naval bases at Haeju and Ongjin.

The large submarines (Romeo, Whiskey, Sang-O) could be a threat to where our Carriers would be operating (but honestly they don't stand a chance of making it that far), their newer Yono class subs would be hard pressed to operate out that far (not to mention the crew exhausted from spending 2 or 3 days aboard something you can't stand up in... then again North Korean are tiny and maybe they can stand up strait in one.)

Originally Posted by Castout

You guys really write too many sentences now I'll have to hold reading them until later

But unlike Skybird we include pictures occasionally with our walls of text.