North Korea masses 50,000 troops on border

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Telegraph UK

North Korea has completed deployment of about 50,000 special forces along the border with South Korea, amid high tensions over the sinking of a Seoul warship.

Snip>

The defence ministry refused to confirm the Yonhap report, but President Lee Myung-Bak discussed the North's special warfare capabilities at an unprecedented meeting Tuesday with 150 top officers from all armed services.

At the meeting, Mr Lee hinted strongly that the North was involved in the sinking of a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 lives near the disputed sea border on March 26.

Suspicions are growing that the 1,200-tonne ship was hit by a torpedo from the communist state, which has denied involvement.

Mr Lee said the South must be better prepared to tackle "asymmetric" military threats including special warfare units.

Snip>

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/7680345/North-Korea-masses-50000-troops-on-border.html

[Pavulon]

1. US loads aircraft with cluster munitions....

the norks are insane, hopefully they will not invade.

[Captain Hilts]

3. They're trying to make it easy for us! Bunch up, gents!

[MidwestTransplant]

18. If we all bunch together we will be harder to kill

[virgogal]

2. Jeesh,reminds me of my college days.

[LakeSamish706]

4. Just lovely, the possibility of another shit storm brewing. This could get real ugly

quickly. We all know that Kim Jong-il is very much lacking a brain and probably would not hesitate to use Nukes if he has them.

[alfredo]

5. Calling Colonel Millett!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Millett

He was my commanding officer in AIT.

[joshcryer]

6. Hmm, almost time to reinstate the draft?

Glad I'm too old to be drafted.

[Scuba]

8. Actually a good ideai...fewer illegal wars if rich parents start griping

[joshcryer]

11. It they attack the South there's a good chance it would happen.

[Scuba]

7. Last time I checked, there were 800,000 N. Korea troops just north of the DMZ

[Ozymanithrax]

9. With the largest concentration artillery in the world...

50,000 special forces, and their other over sized army, the U.S. Military men and women in Korea will be little more than a speed bump.

If he invades be prepared.

[joshcryer]

13. Yeah, the North can firebomb the South from over the border.

Seoul is within range iirc. It'd be a nasty ass war, to be sure.

[MilesColtrane]

16. We should have gone through with that relocation of Youngsan Garrison fifty miles to the south.

If those guys were out of Seoul they'd at least have a chance if the DPRK artillery starts up.

[dsn]

24. It is. It's right at the edge of the envelope for the FROG-7

FROG means Free Rocket Over Ground. It's about one step up from the V-2; the Nazis considered a V-2 mission a success if the rocket hit England at all. FROG-7s are almost that inaccurate as they have no guidance system. I would imagine by now the North Koreans have guided missiles that work; they were playing with a NK-designed missile but last I heard they still couldn't get the bird up in the air. So...if they attack the ROK they'll probably go with what they know works.

[Pavulon]

14. We left lots of skeletons in kuwait. Killed 10,000 at a time with combined

air, mlrs, and 155. If he invades it will be a tragedy for the korean people. Including the ones from the north we kill in mass.

[Ozymanithrax]

17. I do not see 24,000 dead Americans as inferior or superior to the dead...

Koreans. It is a tragedy for everyone. If he invades, we are responsible for defending South Korea and its people. I don't look forward to anyone dying. I don't look forward to the political ramifications here or anywhere else. They will be huge. I suspect a draft will be just the first ramification, which will mean a lot of our sons and daughters will die without even having made the choice to serve.

[Pavulon]

20. There will be no draft, there is no need. All the strategic bombing assets

and troops deployed in japan will mobilize. Contrary to popular belief everyone in the Army and Marines is not currently somewhere sandy..

He WILL NOT kill 24,000 americans. We will throw everything short of nbc at them and they will die in mass like saddams people did.

The us has not used a large percentage of its war fighting capability since vietnam. This would trigger that event.

Seen any tomahawk launches lately? no, those have a more valuable use.

The last time we fought a war there the enemy casualty count was north of a million people. technology has progressed.

We do a shitty job painting schools and winning hearts and minds. We do a great job at dismantling large armies using soviet tactics.

[Old Troop]

10. A couple of points:

1. Can they properly feed the additional troops on the border? There are numerous reports out of NK of soldiers stealing food from farmers to keep themselves going.
2. If Kim has functional nukes, can he deliver them? I think at this stage of their nuke development, the weapons are neither man-portable or missile/artillery deliverable. That leaves aircraft, which could be shot down while still inside NK.
3. Small units of NK SF train hard and well. Most of the rest, with the army, have been used to work farms, mines and construction projects.
4. Kim knows he will die very soon. Does he really care what the consequences of offensive action would be/

[hedgehog]

12. Oh, shit.

[Fearless]

15. Funny that Kim Jung Il goes to China and the next week starts posturing...

:banghead:

[Posteritatis]

22. The first sentence of the article says this began a couple of years ago. (nt)

[Phoonzang]

19. An army is useless with an airforce.

There are a lot of obstacles between the border and Seoul. They'd be slaughtered. Of course they'd cause severe damage to Seoul before the allied airforce took out their artillery.

[Posteritatis]

21. This isn't a sudden thing; they've been building up since 2007-8. (nt)

[khawkings09]

23. this is getting frightening

[daleo]

25. I would hate to see if North Korea's nuclear force is effective

Sure, the U.S. could blow them to the moon, but they might make hash out of Tokyo or Seoul first. Not to mention the nearness of North Korea to China.

[Pavulon]

26. They could nuke china.. They are insane.

china may be threatening them for blowing up that ship. Little behind the scenes diplomacy.

Any use of nuclear weapons would be very bad for Koreans.

[daleo]

27. All Koreans

And all humans really, especially if it were to spiral out of control. And you never know - I don't know if humanity has ever experienced a hot war between two nuclear powers. I can't think of one offhand.

[Pavulon]

32. That was my point. Any use would be bad for all the people there

any war would be very bad for them.

[struggle4progress]

28. It's. the. Telegraph. Get. a. big. shaker. of. salt.

[davidpdx]

29. Sorry, but this is overhyped crap

I live in Korea and have been here six years. Even Lee's diarrhea of the mouth about the North being responsible for the Cheonan's sinking doesn't mesh with me. There is no two ways about it, it was an accident. The media here is over-hyping it big time. That's all they've been talking about for a month straight on the news. Lee is using it as a get tough measure against the North aka George W. Bush.

[ShamelessHussy]

30. they've had massive amounts of troops at the DMZ since the cease fire in the 50s

I think this is more about ratcheting up the fear, to try and distract us from the plethora of real CRISIS going on in the world today, the biggest one being CLIMATE CHANGE and how our way of life only serve to exacerbate the problem.

imho

[DCBob]

31. The NKs are more bark than bite...

They use these scare tactics to presuade SK and US to send more rice.