U.S. would commit huge force to thwart N. Korean offensive

DSumner

Active member
February 04, 2005

U.S. would commit huge force to thwart N. Korean offensive

By Sang-hun Choe
Associated Press

Members the 728th Military Police Battalion salute the flag during Task Force Warfighters' Welcome Home Ceremony at the U.S. Military Base in Daegu, south of Seoul, on Friday. — Lee Jin-man / AP Photo
SEOUL, South Korea — The United States will dispatch 690,000 troops and 2,000 warplanes if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korea’s new defense policy paper released Friday.

Hours after it was released, North Korean media quoted a communist officer as saying that Pyongyang’s forces will turn U.S. military bases in the region into a “sea of fire” if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.

The comments come as the isolated North is urging its military to prepare for what it calls a U.S. plan to invade. Washington and its allies say they are trying to end the North’s nuclear weapons programs through multinational disarmament talks.

South Korea’s new defense white paper mirrors its efforts to redefine its half-century-old confrontation with the communist North as well as adjust its alliance with the United States.

The white paper, which has been updated for the first time in four years, removes 10-year-old references to North Korea being the South’s “main enemy,” though it still calls the North a “direct military threat.”

The removal of the “main enemy” term is largely symbolic but reflects South Korea’s efforts at fostering reconciliation with North Korea.

The commitment of U.S. troops in the event of war appears aimed at easing concerns that Washington’s plan to expand the role of U.S. troops in South Korea from guarding against the North into rapid regional redeployments could create a security vacuum in the world’s last remaining Cold War flash point.

“The reinforcement plan reflects a strong U.S. commitment to defending South Korea,” the South Korean white paper said.

North Korea, which accuses the United States and South Korea of preparing to invade over its nuclear weapons programs, has added more artillery pieces and missiles to its Korean People’s Army, already the world’s fifth largest, it said.

About 300 of the North’s 1,000 long-range artillery and multiple-launch rockets were deployed along the border near Seoul. Those missiles, capable of raining down shells and rockets on the South Korean capital only 31 miles from the border, is the most formidable defense concern for South Korea.

The number of North Korean troops remained unchanged at 1.17 million, but the North has reorganized its military to add eight new divisions, most of them units with missiles capable of hitting South Korea and Japan, officials said.

North Korea, although impoverished and dependent on outside aid to feed its 22 million people, poses a formidable security threat.

North Korea’s Central Radio quoted the communist officer as saying that the North Korean military will “thoroughly incinerate the aggressor elements that collude with the U.S. imperialists,” in an apparent reference to South Korea and Japan, both of which host U.S. military bases.

“If the U.S. imperialists ignite flames of war, we will first of all strike all bases of U.S. imperialist aggressors and turn them into a sea of fire,” Hur Ryong was quoted as saying, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Hur made his comment on Wednesday during a debate in Pyongyang on leader Kim Jong Il’s “army-first” policy that stresses military strength.

Leader Kim Jong Il ensures the Korean People’s Army, the backbone of his Stalinist rule, gets the best food and largest spending, out of the official budget and from a network of illegal trading in counterfeit dollars, drugs and missile technology.

Already armed with large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, the North is resisting U.S. pressure to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Three rounds of six-nation talks aimed at ending the programs produced no breakthroughs. The United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia are struggling to schedule a new round of talks.

Seoul and Washington forged their alliance during the 1950-53 Korean War when American troops led U.N. forces to defend South Korea from communist invaders. The war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.
 
These guys always say "Sea of Fire." I think they need to execute their current speech writer and get a new one.

The help required from the US wouldn't really be in the form of land forces. The best thing the Americans can do is provide for a lot of air assets. Interdiction, air superiority, bombing of strategic sites and carpet bombing suspected enemy troop formations. Leave the close air support to the Korean Air Force (communications with ground forces)... and maybe Marine Air assets to provide close air support for American troops.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
These guys always say "Sea of Fire." I think they need to execute their current speech writer and get a new one.

The help required from the US wouldn't really be in the form of land forces. The best thing the Americans can do is provide for a lot of air assets. Interdiction, air superiority, bombing of strategic sites and carpet bombing suspected enemy troop formations. Leave the close air support to the Korean Air Force (communications with ground forces)... and maybe Marine Air assets to provide close air support for American troops.

but that's already gd enough.
 
ah, missed the ol days of teh 70s when the words imperalists and paper-tigered americans because the daily vocabulary
:eek:

never be over-confident or too unconfident, never underestimate or overstimate ur enemies, north korea is still a formiable enemy, its people still believe in the communist idology, so this is way different from iraq as north korea is mountainous , their army well trained and somewhat okequipped, has the advantage of fixed defence, and the fact that north koreans were taught from birth to hate americans, which would come handy for kim
 
Yes, but imagine the North Koreans just don't seem to meet any American units in the battlefield? Will have a far less effect won't it?

It's not a matter of underestimating or overestimating. It's just that resources are better used for American air power and of course Cruise missile strikes from ships. You need land assets in the middle east.
 
north korea does not really have anything worth to use missile to strike now.....a nation with a GDP of 15 billion U.S.....kind of poor
 
theyve got nothing to lose, they are willing to use any resource possible to defeat the us, and thats a scary thought
 
ya....like a begger has nothing to lose to fight a super rich man..


a begger may get killed..but he knows that his death means nothing to him and others..

but that rich man will not give up his life so easily....
 
They have something to lose. Why do you think they behave so predictably? The North Korean leadership wants to stay in power. They know if a war breaks out, they are all finished.
 
not kim jong, he may be powerhungry and abusive, but i think his idology is really set on desotrying imperalist powers
 
if a war break out:

1. If north starts to invade South....i am sure North Korea gonna be doomed......

2. South attacks North, I dont know then....
 
Well The Capitol of South Korea is actualy moving in 2014 100 miles south in order to try to get away from the threat of the capitol being targeted. However The North does have the large number of troops and artillery on the DMZ lines. They may have a chance when war first breaks out but after everyone has time to get their heads on thier shoulders then the North will be in trouble from the American Bombers and fighters.
 
The capital's not going anywhere.
The current administration promised to actually move the capital somewhere else when it got elected but was pressured into not doing so. What are they going to do? Pick up Seoul and move it south? No. So "moving" or not moving will no save any lives anyway.
And it's a little defeatist to retreat before the shooting begins isn't it? Though things nowadays seem to be moving in the direction of handing the country over to the Communists. Nah, I exagerrate but you know what I mean.
 
true, if the capital is moved, then morale is going to decrease and fear will spread because it seems as if the nks are going to attack soon
 
Besides, the citizens got screwed over before. Before Seoul first fell, the President (Rhee Sung-man) went on the air and told the citizens to stay in Seoul and that the government would stay with them. But they fled during the night and blew the bridge WITH refugees still on them.
A sad time.
The government goes nowhere this time. Or we'll hang the sons of b1tches.
 
redneck 13, you should go into the south korean governmnet, with ur great grudge aginist the chiense and north koreans, you ought to make a good wartime politicaan, besides, ur no-movecapital inspiration will be useful as well :lol:

anyways, just a suggestion
 
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