by Jack Lee
SEOUL (XFN-ASIA) – “A defiant North Korea warned that it would regard harsh sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of war and threatened further tests if the United States kept up its pressure. ”
Kim Jong-il, the perverted little man that is determined to twist the tail of the lion, has warned the United States of ‘physical’ measures” if North Korea suffers from the sanctions proposed by Washington and Japan to the UN. The UN Security Council Members who generally block such attempts, namely
Russia and China, indicated they would support sanctions. In response, Kim Jung-il, directed his foreign ministry to respond with this statement, “If the US continues to harass and put pressure on us, we will regard this as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical countermeasures“.
WASHINGTON (AP) – “President Bush called Wednesday for stiff sanctions on North Korea for its reported nuclear test and asserted that the United States has “no intention of attacking” the reclusive regime.”
If war should break out, about 32,000 American soldiers will face Kim Jung-il’s well trained and equipped, one million-man army. Despite the minefields on the DMZ, weapons emplacements and whatever conventional weapons that could be brought to bear on a massive North Korean invasion, it’s widely believed the frontline defenders would be overwhelmed on the first day of fighting. In an odd response to this threat, the Pentagon has announced that those forces will be cut to 25,000 by September 2008 and soon after they will be phased out completely.
How North Korea intends to win, excerpted from, “A Strategy Of Massive Retaliations Against U.S. Attacks” by Han Ho Suk, Director, Center for North Korean Affairs: “First, total war is North Korea’s avowed strategy in case of US preemptive attacks. The US war on Iraq shows that the US can and will mount preemptive strikes in clear violation of international laws, and the United Nations is powerless to stop the US. Any nation that is weak militarily may be attacked by the US at will. It is reasonable for North Korea to deter US attacks with threats of total war.
Second, North Korea expects no help from China, Russia, or other nations in case of war with the US. It knows that it will be fighting the superpower alone. Normally, China and Russia are North Korea’s allies but neither ally is expected to provide any assistance to North Korea in case of war. Neither nation can or is willing to protect North Korea from attacks by the US, and North Korea alone can and will protect itself from US attacks. This principle of self-defense applies to all nations.
Third, North Korea’s total war plan has two components: massive conventional warfare and weapons of mass destruction. If the US mounts a preemptive strike on North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear plants, North Korea will retaliate with weapons of mass destruction: North Korea will mount strategic nuclear attacks on the US targets. The US war planners know this and have drawn up their own nuclear war plan. In a nuclear exchange, there is no front or rear areas, no defensive positions or attack formations as in conventional warfare. Nuclear weapons are offensive weapons and there is no defense against nuclear attacks except retaliatory nuclear attacks. For this reason, North Korea’s war plan is offensive in nature: North Korea’s war plan goes beyond repulsing US attackers and calls for destruction of the United States. 
NOTE: North Korea maintains the world’s third largest arsenal of chemical weapons – which includes mustard gas, phosgene, sarin and V-agents. Along with these chemical agents, the DPRK also maintains an active biological weapons program and have developed a significant amount of anthrax, botulism, plague, and smallpox.
From GlobalSecurity.com North Korea’s short-term blitzkrieg strategy envisions a successful surprise attack in the early phase of the war to occupy some or all of South Korea before the arrival of US reinforcements on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean ground forces, totaling some 1 million soldiers, are composed of some 170 divisions and brigades including infantry, artillery, tank, mechanized and special operation forces. Of the total, about 60 divisions and brigades are deployed south of the Pyongyang-Wonsan line. North Korea possesses the world’s fifth largest military and is the most militarized nation in proportion to population (estimated at 22 million. Military spending is $5.2 billion or 22.9% percent of North Koreas GDP.
Most of North Korea’s armored units consist of old Soviet built T-54 and T-55 tanks, some of those tanks are now approaching 50 years old. It’s highly suspect how effective their numerically superior forces would be against a smaller, but better armored force used by ROK and US defenders. In Iraq, the U.S. 70 ton Abram’s tanks (see photo left) were often outnumbered 5 to 1, yet quickly defeated the Iraqi’s best MBT, the Russian built T-55 tank. Even the U.S. high speed Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, used to carry troops, obliterated the older and slower Iraqi tanks on contact, with it’s 20 mm rapid fire cannon, using depleted uranium bullets that penetrated up to 5 inches of steel armor.
It’s interesting to note than in 1998 the U.S. and Korean forces drew up a contingency plan called “War Plan 5027” that used preemptive strikes on North Korea in the event there were major signs of an imminent invasion by North Korea. North Korea reacted by drawing up its own war plan for preemptive strikes. Little has changed since this plan was created. Today, only the Second Infantry Division and the Seventh Air Force are committed to battle with the potential North Korean invaders. The rest of our forces, numbering only a few hundred, are in logistics, communications, and intelligence and small Navy and Marine Corps units. South Korean forces (ROK) number about 600,000, but fewer than 60% of this number could be considered fighting units, the rest are dedicated to support roles.
Recently declassified information indicated, the United States withdrew the last nuclear weapons from South Korea in December 1991. The initiative was a result of President George H. Bush’s unilateral disarmament in September 1991 and the withdrawal involved approximately 60 artillery shells and 40 B61 bombs. Now that North Korea has nuclear weapons this unilateral decision appears short sighted, to say the least.
A war with North Korea at this time with our limited forces to resist an unlimited, total war, would make Iraq look like a walk in the park. However, as costly as this war might be in the begining, even the most pesimistic analysts agree, the invasion would fail and it would result in the complete destruction of Kim Jung-il’s government and probably the reunification of the two Koreas.
Korean War: June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman, authorized the U.S. military to come to the aide of South Korean against the communist invasion lead by Kim Jung-il’s father and so began the Korean War. Three years later the fighting was halted by a tenious cease fire. That is all that has seperated these two combatants, so technically the war has never ended. The US lost 54,000 killed in action and suffered 103,000 wounded. About 8,100 Americans are still listed as missing in action.
The secret war. Despite the cease fire, North Korea has kept up a steady flow of military provocations along the DMZ. This led to a number of American soldiers being killed-in-action by highly specialized assassination teams of NPK’s soldiers, in sneak attacks. The U.S. deaths have continued to mount long after the cease fire was declared. But, because of the volatile political situation, the media is rarely informed of border incidents or our casualties.
Silent heros: The U.S. soldiers that have been called upon to serve in the DMZ from 1953 to the present time were really delt a bad hand, thanks to our governments political concerns that limited what the public was allowed to know. Our soldiers often risked their lives in direct conflict with North Koreans. When ambushed, they were outnumbered and outgunned, sometimes the ambushes were staged to look like peasants attacking them with hatchets, sickles and hoes. Our soldiers were denied the right to shoot back in self defense…again for political reasons. Many of their exploits are still considered “classified” for strategic political reasons. As a result, their stories while protecting the DMZ will likely never receive the recognition and thanks they deserved.