It's a matter of #'s. The US troops could not stop a thing from happening if the North Korean's decided to go 'POSTAL'. And that is just about the only Military tactic they could possibly launch an assault with. And the Fuck of it all is this......Were N.Korea to Launch an assault on Japan......i am convinced that a very large percentage of S. Korea would be Cheering.
They have not forgotten Japanese war atrocities there. I personally saw desecrated Buddhist temples there from WW2. The Japanese used the ancient stone monuments as target practice items. And the Korean Woman during the occupation? Most people would not even want to know.
It's a no win situation from an American standpoint. I think it's long overdue to turn the defense of S.Korea to there own devices.
well, obviously the S.Korea/Japan dynamic is one of the bizarre ocmponents to the stability of the region, but with regards to what the US troops stationed there could do, i think that NK could be stopped by us and South Korea, the question is, how much damage they could do before they were defeated?
Victory for the US and SK would be holding the DMZ. Victory for NK would be breaking through the DMZ, pushing deep into SK and consolidating gains (ultimate goal is reunification,m under the NK banner).
NK's air force and Navy are small and not effective...their doctrine isone of massive land assault, exploiting any breakthroughs, then consoldiating gains, and trying to send special forces through the gaps into the rear control areas to disrupt communications, supplies and takeover airbases etc.
of cours, this is predicated on breaching the DMZ.
their overwhelming rocket and artillery fire is massive as are their conventional armored and mechanized forces...however their armored and mechanized corps use relatively antiquated equipment ( mostly pre 1970s era soviet copy tanks, APCs, IFV's) not to mention there are only 3 strategic areas where they could cross the DMZ at Munsan, Ch'orwon, and Tongduch'on corridors (the only three feasible large approaches)
the East Coast Approach (Taedong Mountains)
the Chorwon Approach, (Kumwha Valley and Chorwon West a.k.a MSR3)
the Kaesong-Munsan Approach (KM North)
the defensive structures, tank traps, barriers etc. that the US and ROK have set up in those zones make it unlikely that they would be able to breakthrough, though the artillery and rocket barrages would take a very heavy toll.
the ROK is a very formidable and well trained force and along with our forces there have a very pronounced technical advantage, not to mention air superiority.
looking at it on the surface (hopefully it will never happen for real) it would be a very interesting and epic military engagement in tactical terms.