If a North Korean nuclear attack happened

[Bengalzona]

(08-07-2017, 06:52 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Does South korea have a military? How about japan?

Sure would be nice if they stepped to the plate. Bust out some kind of shock and awe campagin and avoid the use of nukes. Have the UN step in and pick up the pieces.

Its like letting a stupid fat kid next door sit there with a gun aimed at you and his finger on the trigger. Sooner or later you have to grow a pair and do something.

The unfortunate reality of North Korea is that there is no "shock and awe" campaign that could invade the country and get to the those nukes before one or more was used, and there is no doubt that the North Koreans would use them if they felt their existence were threatened. Even by the United States. The hilly and mountainous terrain makes a campaign similar to the Iraq Invasion totally impossible there. Even the Iraq Invasion took 6 weeks. We could take North Korean, barring a Chinese intervention. But it would take more along the range of 3 to 6 months.

South Korea has a pretty powerful army, air force and navy. At 675,000 active personnel, the ROK military is one of the largest militaries in the world. They are reported to have upwards of 3 million reservists (however, I'm not sure that their idea of a reservist is the same as ours). Their active Army is well trained and professional (BTW- many people are not aware that ROK contributed over three divisions of troops to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War). Their Air Force fields approximately 450 aircraft, including F-15's. Their Navy is small, but fields numerous advanced destroyers and submarines.

South Korea is not a country to be trifled with. But it should be noted that their military is totally geared for regional action only, primarily defense (i.e. they aren't geared to project much power outside of the Korean Peninsula). They have enough power to defend themselves against the hyper-militarized North Koreans and to probably even defeat them in a war IF no outside powers intervened. Unfortunately, the Koreas are all about outside powers being involved. So that scenario is totally hypothetical. Even in that hypothetical situation, a ROK invasion of the North would take years, not months.

Japan sought to get by with minimal armed forces for several years following World War II. But in 1954, they realized that that was not possible (primarily because of the threat of North Korea. So they created the JSDF (Japan Self-Defense Forces). It is a small, combined force armed forces with approximately 250,000 active personnel and 50,000 reservists. Despite their size, they are higly professional and field some of the most advanced technologies outside of the U.S. But they are totally self-defense oriented and cannot project power outside of Japan. In a future Korean conflict, they would not be sending troops to the peninsula.

I can see your point about the stupid fat kid scenario. But the thing to also consider is that this stupid fat kid has two stupid fat adults (China and Russia) standing behind him with rocket launchers. That's why South Korea looks to us, Rambo, to stand behind them.

BTW - Japan is doing some very advanced work on anti-ballistic missile defenses.