Since everyone is in a war mood in this thread, I will post a
pro-DPRK military paper to boost war morale:
North
Korea's War Strategy of Massive Retaliations against US
Attacks
North Korea has not only the military power but also
the political will to wage total war against the United
States.
04/24/03 (Center for Korean Affairs) An English abstract of a
paper by Han Ho Suk Director
1. North Korea Can Engage the US in Total
War
North Korea is one of the few nations that can engage in a
total war with the United States. The US war planners recognize
this fact. For example, on March 7, 2000, Gen. Thomas A Schwartz,
the US commander in Korea at the time, testified at a US
congressional hearing that "North Korea is the country most likely
to involve the United States in a large-scale war."
North Korea, which can and is willing to face up to the sole
military superpower of the world, cannot be called a weak nation.
Nevertheless, Western press and analysts distort the truth and
depict North Korea as an "impoverished" nation, starving and on the
brink of imminent collapse. An impoverished, starving nation
cannot face down a military superpower. Today few nations
have military assets strong enough to challenge the US military.
Russia, though weakened by the collapse of the Soviet Union, has
enough assets to face up to the US. China, somewhat weaker
than Russia, too, has strong military that can challenge the US.
However, both Russia and China lack the political will to face down
the US.
In contrast, North Korea has not only the military power but
also the political will to wage total war against the United
States. North Korea has made it clear that it will strike all US
targets with all means, if the US mounted military attacks on
North Korea. That North Korea's threat is no bluff can be
seen from the aggressive actions taken by North Korea since the
Korean War armistice, most recent of which is North Korea's attempt
to capture an American spy plane. In the morning of March 1, 2003,
an American RC-132S spy plane, Cobra Ball, took off from a US
airbase in Okinawa, and cruised along the East coast of North Korea
collecting electronic signals. The US intelligence suspected that
North Korea was about to test a long-range missile and the plane
was there to monitor the suspected missile launch.
When the US plane reached a point about 193 km from the coast of
North Korea, two MiG-29 and two MiG-21 fighter planes showed up
unexpectedly. The North Korean planes approached within 16 m and
signaled the US plane to follow them. The US pilot refused to
follow the command and left the scene posthaste. The US plane was
tailed by the hostiles for about 22 min but let the US spy plane
go. There are two key points to be observed here.
First, the hostile planes waited for the US plane at the Uhrang
airbase, located about 200 km from the point of air encounter.
They knew that the US plane was coming. The North
Korean planes flew 200 km to intercept the US plane. Did the US
plane see them coming? If it did, why no evasive action?
After intercepting the US plane, the hostile planes dogged it
for 22 min. Why no American planes for the rescue? The
US crew must have informed the base of the danger they were in, but
no action was taken by the base. If Kim Jong Il had given the
command, the MiGs would have shot down the US plane and returned to
their base before the US could have scrambled war planes.
Second, North Korea intercepted an American spy plane flying 200
km from its coast. According to the international norm, a
nation's territorial air space extends 19 km from its coast line.
The US is the exception and claims air space of 370 km from
its coast line; any foreign airplane violating this extended air
space is challenged or shot down by the US military.
2. North Korea's Massive Retaliation
Strategy
North Korea's war plan in case of an US attack is total war, not
the 'low-intensity limited warfare' or 'regional conflict' talked
about among the Western analysts. North Korea will mount a total
war if attacked by the US. There are three aspects to this war
plan.
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. Nominally, 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.
The US war plan '5027' calls for military occupation of North
Korea; it goes beyond the elimination of North Korea's weapons of
mass destruction. The US military regards North Korea its
main enemy and likewise North Korea regards the US its main enemy.
South Korea, too, regards North Korea its main enemy
but North Korea does not regard South Korea its main enemy because
South Korea is a client state of the United States and has no
ability or power to act independent of the US. North Korea's
war plan is not for invading South Korea but for destroying the
US.
3. North Korea's Military Capability
All nations keep their military capability secret. North Korea
is no exception and it is not easy to assess North Korea's military
power. The US claims that it knows North Korea's military secrets.
The United States collects intelligence on North Korea using a
variety of means: American U-2, RC-135, EP-3 and other
high-altitude spy planes watch over North Korea 24 hours 7 days a
week. The US 5th Air Reconnaissance Squadron has U-2R, U-2S, and
other advanced spy planes at the Ohsan airbase in South Korea. In
addition, the US has 70 KH-11 spy satellites hovering over North
Korea.
In spite of such a massive deployment of intelligence collection
assets, the US intelligence on North Korea is faulty at best.
Donald Gregg, a former US ambassador to Seoul and a 30-year CIA
veteran, has admitted that the US intelligence on North Korea has
been the longest lasting story of failure in the annals of US
intelligence. Gregg said that even the best spy gadget in the US
arsenal cannot read what's on Kim Jong Il's mind. US
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said that North Korea uses
underground optical fibers for military communication and that it
is nearly impossible to plant human agents in North Korea.
Although North Korea's military secrets are impervious to US spy
operations, one can draw some general pictures from information
available in the public domain.
a) North Korea makes its own weapons
North Korea has annual production capacity for 200,000 AK
automatic guns, 3,000 heavy guns, 200 battle tanks, 400 armored
cars and amphibious crafts. North Korea makes its own
submarines, landing drafts, high-speed missile-boats, and other
types of warships. Home-made weaponry makes it possible for North
Korea to maintain a large military force on a shoestring budget.
North Korea defense industry is made of three groups: weapon
production, production of military supplies, and military-civilian
dual-use product manufacturing.
North Korea has 17 plants for guns and artillery, 35 plants for
ammunition, 5 plants for tanks and armored cars, 8 plants for
airplanes, 5 plants for warships, 3 plants for guided missiles, 5
plants for communication equipment, and 8 plants for biochemical
warheads - 134 plants in total. In addition, many plants that
make consumer products are designed so that they can be made to
produce military items with minimum modification. About 180
of defense related plants are built underground in the rugged
mountainous areas of Jagang-do. Several small to medium
hydro-power plants serve these plants so that it would be nearly
impossible for the US to cut off power to the plants.
b) North Korea has its own war plans
North Korea is mountainous and its coasts are long and jagged.
The Korean peninsula is narrow on its waste. North Korea's weapons
and war tactics are germane to Korea's unique geography.
North Korea has developed its own war plans unique to
fighting the US in a unique way. North Korea's military is
organized into several independent, totally integrated and
self-sufficient fighting units, that are ready for action at any
time.
c) North Korean soldiers are well
indoctrinated
The US commanders admit that North Korean soldiers are highly
motivated and loyal to Kim Jong Il, and that they will fight well
in case of war. Karl von Clausewitz said that people's support for
war, military commanders' ability and power, and the political
leadership are the three essentials for winning war. He failed to
include the political indoctrination of the soldiers, which is
perhaps more important than the other factors cited.
During the Iraq War just ended, the main cause of Iraq's defeat
was the low moral of its soldiers. Iraqi soldiers had no will
to stand and fight, and they ran away or surrendered without fight.
Iraqi soldiers believed in Allah protecting them and became
easy preys to the US military. North Korean soldiers are taught to
fight to the bitter end. In September 1996, a North Korean
submarine got stranded at Kangrung, South Korea, and its crew
abandoned the ship. Eleven of the crew committed suicide and
the rest fought to the last man except one who was captured. In
June 1998, another submarine got caught in fishing nets at Sokcho
and its crew killed themselves. Such is the fighting spirit
of North Korean soldiers.
d) North Koreans are combat ready
One cannot fight war without military preparedness. North
Korea's regular army is for offensive actions whereas its militias
are homeland defense. North Korea's regular army consists of
4 corps in the front area, 8 corps in the rear area, one tank
corps, 5 armored corps, 2 artillery corps, and 1 corps for the
defense of Pyongyang, South Korea has 19 infantry divisions
whereas North Korea has 80 divisions and brigades.
A North Korean infantry division has 3 infantry regiments, 1
artillery regiment (3 battalions of 122 mm rocket launchers and 1
battalion of 152 mortars), one tank battalion of 31 tanks, one
anti-tank battalion, one anti-aircraft battalion, one engineer
battalion, one communication battalion, one light-infantry
battalion, one recon battalion, and one chemical warfare battalion.
North Korea's militias consist of 1.6 million self-defense
units, 100,000 people's guards, 3.9 million workers militia,
900,000 youth guard units. These militias are tasked to
defend the homeland. The militias are fully armed and undergo
military trainings regularly.
i) Artillery
North Korea has 2 artillery corps and 30 artillery brigades
equipped with 120mm self-propelled guns, 152mm self-propelled
mortars, 170mm guns with a range of 50 km, 240 mm multiple rocket
launchers with a range of 45 km, and other heavy guns. North
Korea has about 18,000 heavy guns. North Korea's 170mm Goksan
gun and 240mm multiple-tube rocket launchers are the most powerful
guns of the world. These guns can lob shells as far south as
Suwon miles beyond Seoul. The big guns are hidden in caves.
Many of them are mounted on rails and can fire in all
directions. They can rain 500,000 conventional and
biochemical shells per hour on US troops near the DMZ. The US
army bases at Yijong-bu, Paju, Yon-chun, Munsan, Ding-gu-chun, and
Pochun will be obliterated in a matter of hours.
The US army in Korea is equipped with Paladin
anti-artillery guns that can trace enemy shells back to the guns
and fire shells at the enemy guns with pin-point accuracy. However,
it takes for the Paladins about 10 min to locate the enemy guns,
during which time the Paladins would be targeted by the enemy guns
Gen. Thomas A Schwartz, a former US army commander in Korea,
stated that the US army in Korea would be destroyed in less than
three hours.
ii). Blitz Klieg
North Korea has tanks, armored cars, and self-propelled
artillery for blitz klieg. North Korea has one tank corps
and 15 tank brigades. The tank corps has 5 tank regiments, each of
which has 4 heavy tank battalions, 1 light-tank battalion, one
mechanized infantry battalion, 2 self-propelled artillery
battalions.
US tanks are designed to operate in open fields. In 1941,
Rommel of Germany defeated British troops in North Africa with
tanks. The largest tank battle was fought at Kursk in 1943,
in which the Soviets defeated Germans. In 1973, Egypt defeated
Israeli tanks with anti-tank missiles. All of these tank
battles were fought in open fields. The Gulf War and the recent war
in Iraq saw US tanks in open fields. American and Western tank
commanders do not know how to fight tank battles in rugged terrains
like those of Korea. Tank battles in Korea will be fought on
hilly terrains without any close air cover, because North Korean
fighters will engage US planes in close dog fights.
North Korea has developed tanks ideally suited for the many
rivers and mountains of Korea. These tanks are called "Chun-ma-ho",
which can navigate steep slopes and cross rivers as much as 5.5 m
deep. North Korea's main battle tanks - T-62s - have 155 mm
guns and can travel as fast as 60 km per hour. The US main tanks -
M1A - have 120 mm guns and cannot travel faster than 55 km per
hour. North Korean tanks have skins 700 mm thick and TOW-II
is the only anti-tank missile in the US arsenal that can penetrate
this armored skin.
North Korea began to make anti-tank missiles in 1975 and has
been improving its anti-tank missiles for the past 30 years. North
Korea's anti-tank missiles are rated the best in the world and
several foreign nations buy them. The US army in Korea relies on 72
AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to kill North Korean tanks. Each
Apache has 16 Hell-Fire anti-tank missiles. As shown in the recent
Iraq war, Apaches are fragile and can be easily shot down even with
rifles. North Korea has about 15,000 shoulder-fired anti-air
missiles ("wha-sung") and Apaches will be easy targets for wha-sung
missiles. On December 17, 1994, a wha-sung missile brought
down an American OH-58C spy helicopter which strayed north of the
DMZ.
North Korea has 4 mechanized corps and 24 mechanized brigades.
Each brigade has 1 tank battalion (31 tanks), 1 armored battalion
(46 armored cars), 4 infantry battalions, one 122mm battalion (18
guns), one 152 mm battalion (18 guns), one anti-aircraft battalion
(18 guns), anti-tank battalion (9 armored cars with anti-tank
missiles and 12 anti-tank guns), one armored recon company (3 light
armored cars, 7 armored cars, and 8 motor-cycles), one mortar
company (6 mortars), one engineer company, one chemical company,
and one communication company. The US army has A-10 attack
planes to counter North Korea's mechanized units. In case of
war, the skies over Korea will be filled with fighters in close
dog-fights and the A-10s would be ineffective.
The bulk of North Korea's mechanized and tank units are
positioned to cross the DMZ at a moment's notice and run over the
US and South Korean defenders. The attackers will be aided by
SU-25 attack planes and attack helicopters. In addition,
North Korea has 600 high-speed landing crafts, 140 hovercrafts, and
3,000 K-60 and other pontoon bridges for river-crossing.
North Korea has 700,000 troops, 8,000 heavy guns, and 2,000
tanks placed in more than 4,000 hardened bunkers within 150 km of
the DMZ.
iii. Underground Tunnel Warfare
North Korea is the world most-tunneled nation. North Korea's
expertise in digging tunnels for warfare was demonstrated during
the Vietnam War. North Korea sent about 100 tunnel warfare experts
to Vietnam to help dig the 250 km tunnels for the North Vietnamese
and Viet Gong troops in South Vietnam. The tunnels were
instrumental in the Vietnamese victory.
North Korea's army runs on company-size units. Tunnel warfare is
conducted by independent company-size units. Tunnel entrances are
built to withstand US chemical and biological attacks.
Tunnels run zig-zag and have seals, air-purification units,
and safe places for the troops to rest. It is believed that
North Korea has built about 20 large tunnels near the DMZ. A large
tunnel can transport 15,000 troops per hour across the DMZ
and place them behind the US troops.
iv. Special Forces
North Korea has the largest special forces, 120,000 troops, in
the world. These troops are grouped into light infantry
brigades, attack brigades, air-borne brigades, and sea-born
brigades - 25 brigades in total. These troops will be tasked
to attack US military installations in Korea, Japan, Okinawa and
Guam.
North Korea has the capacity to transport 20,000 special force
troops at the same time. North Korea has 130 high-speed landing
crafts and 140 hovercrafts. A North Korean hovercraft can carry one
platoon of troops at 90 km per hour. Western experts
pooh-pooh North Korea's ancient AN-2 transport planes as 1948
relics, but AN-2 planes can fly low beneath US radars and deliver
up to 10 troops at 160 km per hour. North Korea makes AN-2s and has
about 300 in place. In addition, North Korea has hang-gliders
that can carry 5-20 men each for short hops.
North Korea has developed special bikes for mountain warfare.
Special forces use these bikes for fast deployments on
mountains. Switzerland is the only other nation that has
bike-mounted special forces trained for mountain warfare. The
rugged terrains of the Korean Peninsula are ideally suited for
special forces operations. North Korea's special forces will
attack US targets in Japan, Okinawa, and Guam as well. Japan's self
defense units are being reorganized to counter this threat.
How good are North Korea's special forces? In September
1996, a North Korean submarine was stranded near Kang-nung and the
crew were forced to abandon the ship and land on South Korea.
The sub had two special forces agents who had finished a
mission in South Korea and were picked up by the sub before the sub
ran into a rock. The two men fought off an army of South
Korean troops and remained at large for 50 days, during which they
killed 11 of the pursuers.
4. Weapons of Mass Destruction
a. Missile Readiness
North Korea is a nuclear state along with the US, Russia, China,
the Great Britain, France, India, Pakistan, and Israel. North
Korea has succeeded in weaponizing nuclear devices for missile
delivery. North Korea has operational fleets of ICBM and
intermediate-range missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. I
have written on this subject previously and will not replicate the
details here...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3099.htm