[Pred the Penguin]

If it comes to an all out war with every kind of missile imaginable flying over the border... South Korea would probably still win, but it would be a Pyrrhic victory.

[StarSlayer]

The Glorious Leader has Ascended to the Celestial Plane.

Funny enough I've heard it theorized that a conventional offense by the DPRK would likely stall out at the first supermarket.

[NGTM-1R]

While I'm sure all the "good guys" could band together and stomp NK in the long run, wouldn't it be a rather drawn out and messy affair? As I understand it, they're pretty damn well entrenched up there. The whole country is practically a fortress.

The problem isn't really one of entrenchment in a conventional sense. The United States and South Korea have invested billions of dollars in being able to rain death upon entrenched enemies, and it is a truism in war that anything you can see is simply a casualty, no matter how well-protected. The US has been long been one of the world's foremost practitioners of the art of breaking fixed defensive lines with effective use of artillery and airpower.

The North has staked their entire military on being able to get off one good launch at Seoul. There are simply too many targets and no way to kill them all before a majority have gotten off a round. And at that point South Korea's most heavily populated areas are blasted, poisonous, infectious, and now possibly radioactive wastelands.

The war after this would be brief, and North Korea's army would lose it badly. But it would also already be too late.

[Nuke]

if the north attacks the south then blizzard might cancel the starcraft 2 expansion packs!

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[MP-Ryan]

We placing bets on how long before the first attempt at a coup by one of Jong-un's brothers or the military (or both)?  We can start a date pool.

[Colonol Dekker]

>>Insert (probably already mentioned) Team america "RONERY" joke<<

[Pred the Penguin]

You're 21 posts too late.

[Sheridan_37]

Defo think its not in the Norths interests to blast Seoul with their arty, these 10-a-penny despots huff and puff but when its time to step up to the plate....Zip!! they lose their powerbase and all his dads western movie collection lol, well what power that they like to think they've got!..

Saddam, Mugabe, Ahmedinejad and now this kid, all the same

[Sandwich]

The first thing that came into my mind was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2njxaDLMxY

[The E]

Defo think its not in the Norths interests to blast Seoul with their arty, these 10-a-penny despots huff and puff but when its time to step up to the plate....Zip!! they lose their powerbase and all his dads western movie collection lol, well what power that they like to think they've got!..

Saddam, Mugabe, Ahmedinejad and now this kid, all the same

The problem is, NK is a sort of marxist take on a theocracy, and has been for over a generation. There is quite literally no failure mode for that sort of thing that doesn't result in a LOT of suffering. The only question is whether NK manages to make everyone around them suffer as well when it collapses, I would not want to imagine the immense amount of future shock, or even reality shock the north korean population is in for once contact with the outside world is reestablished.

[Colonol Dekker]

It'll be like Fallout 2.... And we're the Frakking Enclave!

[StarSlayer]

Nighttime shots of the DPRK pretty much says it all:



It's actually pretty sad, its population has essentially been brainwashed since the Korean War.  There was a 60 minutes story a few years ago that the DPRK had requested the use of the Diary of Ann Frank to be part of their school curriculum.  The West ostensibly thought this was a beneficial change...  It turned out they were teaching it in the context of "Don't end up like Ann Frank resist the fascist/capitalist/AmericanNazis." 

[Sheridan_37]

It's more than sad starslayer it's actually depressing, when you look at that image and you know just how poorly the people are kept and the twisted lies they get rammed down their throats, no connection to the outside world, poverty and starvation (1 million dead). I rant and rave with my mates about my government but at least i'm lucky living in dare i say it at the moment but a prosperous country unlike those poor souls.