C-Span Video: “The North Korean Military Threat: Paper Tiger or Ongoing Menace?”
Bruce Bechtol of the Marine Command and Staff College, one of the foremost experts on the North Korean military, talks about its current state of readiness and recent changes to its organization and order of battle.
Powerful, and well worth the 67 minutes to sit through.
One thing is certain, either NK is transforming to a SOF-heavy force because they see an Iraq-type scenario coming up or they just can’t afford to feed, arm, equip and fuel a conventional mechanized force anymore.
What was really captivating is that at least 2 of the panelists believed (one as an eye-winess account) that PKA soldiers are skinny and frail looking.
The ROK Joint Forces definitely have vulnerabilities that would be fairly easy to exploit without the muscle of the USFK.
What they didn’t talk about (and I can’t either) is that cyber warfare between Asian powers and the US is red hot.
Can’t, or won’t?
Also, the video made an excellent point that the north need not capture and occupy all of the south to have devastating effect. They merely need to obliterate Seoul, which is a very achievable goal.
Inflicting heavy damage on Seoul does not equal DPRK victory. It punishes the ROK but justifies a full-scale invasion of NK and a regime change operation. Seoul was taken twice by the DPRK and the CCF in the Korean War and they were driven out both times in eventual defeat.
I accept his premise prima facie but other panelists also said that NK cannot sustain continuous operations for longer than a few days. It remains to be seen whether the DPRK can obliterate Seoul within a few days while the CFC is steady pounding them by ground, sea and air.
They also questioned the effectiveness of insertion platforms for the NK SOF. So do I.
PKA Military Retirement Plan: DPRK takes care of its veterans!
From Good Friends:
I know there are a lot of military, former military and military associates that read OFK. I knew that the DPRK was a ‘socialist’ country where all ‘comrades’ are equal even under the ‘military first’ policy but this is an eye-opener. Wow.