North Korea
has not only the military power but also the political will to wage total war
against the United States 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.
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. It was May of 1994, nine years ago, when the US
military planners had first realized that North Korea had the bomb and devised
nuclear attack plans under William Perry, the then US Secretary of Defense.
Perry had estimated that North Korea would have about 100 nuclear warheads by
2000.
Dr. Kim Myong Chul, an expert on Kim Jong
Il's war plans, has recently confirmed that North Korea has more than 100 nukes
including hydrogen bombs. North Korea can produce about 100 missiles a year. It
began to make missiles in 1980 and has about 1,000 missiles of various types in
place, about 100 of which have nuclear warheads. These missiles are hidden in
caves and underground launching pads. At present, the US has no fool-proof
defense against North Korean missiles, and in case of war, North Korean
missiles can do serious damages: several hundreds of thousands of US troops
will die, and scores of US bases and carrier battle groups will be destroyed.
The Patriot
anti-missile missiles are deployed in South Korea but as shown in the recent
Iraq war, the Patriots are not 100% accurate or reliable even under ideal
conditions. b. Biochemical Warfare North Korea has a large stockpile of
biochemical weapons. Each Army corps has a chemical company and each regiment
has a chemical platoon. In the May 1994 nuclear crisis, Perry warned North
Korea that the US would retaliate with nuclear weapons if North Korea used
chemical weapons on US troops. North Korean troops and citizens are
well-prepared for bio-chemical attacks. 5. North Korea's Defense Against US
Attacks a. Fortification North Korea began to build fortifications in 1960s.
All key military facilities are built
underground to withstand American bunker-buster bombs. North Korea has 8,236
underground facilities that are linked by 547 km of tunnels. Beneath Pyongyang
are a huge underground stadium and other facilities. About 1.2 million tons of
food, 1.46 million tons of fuel, and 1.67 million tons of ammunition are stored
in underground storage areas for wartime use. Most of the underground
facilities are drilled into granite rocks and the entrances face north in order
to avoid direct hits by American bombs and missiles. The B-61 Mod 11 is the
main bunker buster in the US arsenal. A recent test showed that this buster
could penetrate only 6 meters of rock.
The latest
GBU-28 laser-guided bunker-buster can penetrate to 30m. North Korean bunkers
have at least 80 m of top-cover of solid rocks. North Korea has many false
caves that emit heats that will misdirect unwary GBU-28/37 and BKU-113
bunker-busters. The US military targets enemy command and control centers based
on the doctrine of chopping off "the head of the snake." With the top
commanders eliminated, the rank and file would be demoralized, leaderless and
would surrender. North Korea's extensive underground fortification makes this
strategy unworkable. In addition, the underground facilities make US spy planes
and satellites impotent. b.
Air Defense
North Korea has a large number of ground-to-air missiles. It has SA-2 and SA-3
missiles against low-flying enemy planes, and SA-5 missiles for high-altitude
planes. SA-5 missiles have an effective range of 250 km. SA-5 missiles can hit
enemy planes flying over the middle of South Korea. North Korea has
reengineered US shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles captured in Vietnam, and
designed its own missile, wha-sung. North Korea began to manufacture wha-sung missiles
in 1980. Wha-sung comes in two models: SA-7 that has an effective range of 5 km
and SA-16 with 10 km range. North Korea has more than 15,000 wha-sung missiles
in place. In addition to the missiles, North Korea has 12,000 anti-aircraft
guns, including 37mm twin-barrel guns, 23 mm automatics, 57mm, 87mm, and 100mm
heavy guns.
These are
mostly manually operated and thus not subject to electronic warfare. c. Coastal
deferens. North Korea's coastlines are long and jagged. Coastal guns are placed
in fortified tunnels along the coastline. North Korea has six ground-to-ship
missile bases. North Korea has anti-ship missiles of 95km range, and of 160km
range. The latter are for hitting US carrier battle groups over the horizon.
North Korean anti-ship missiles can hit ships anchored at Inchon on the west
and Sokcho on the east. America's main defense against anti-ship missiles, the
Arleigh Burke class Aegis destroyers are ineffective outside 20-50 km from
missile launch pads. d. Sea Battles North Korea has two fleets - the West Fleet
and the East Fleet.
The West
Fleet has 6 squadrons of 320 ships and the East Fleet has 10 squadron of 460
ships. The navy has a total manpower of 46,000. North Korean ships are
sheltered from US attacks in about 20 bunkers of 200-900 m longs and 14-22 m
wide. North Korean ships are small and agile, designed for coastal defense.
North Korean ships carry 46km range ship-to-ship missiles and 22-channel
multiple rocket launchers. The main enemy of the North Korean navy will be US
carrier task forces. The Russian navy has developed a tactic to deal with US
carriers task forces: massive simultaneous missile attacks. In addition, Russia
has developed the anti-carrier missile, "jun-gal", that can destroy a
carrier.
China has developed similar tactics for
destroying US carriers. On April 1, 2003, North Korea test-fired a high-speed
ground-to-ship missile of 60km range. A US carrier task force of Nimitz class
has 6,000 men, 70 planes, and a price tag of 4.5 billion dollars. Destroying
even a single career task force will be traumatic. A carrier is protected by a
shield of 6 Aegis destroyers and nuclear attack submarines. An Aegis destroyer
has an AN/SPY-1 high-capacity radar system that can track more than 100 targets
at the same time. An Aegis can fire about 20 anti-missile missiles at the same
time. Thus, a career force can track a total of 600 targets at a time and fire
120 anti-missile missiles at the same time. The anti-missile missiles have
about 50% success under ideal conditions.
In actual
battle situations, the hit rate will be much lower and the best estimate is
that the Aegis shield can intercept at most 55 incoming missiles. Therefore, a
volley of about 60 missiles and rockets will penetrate the Aegis shield and hit
the career. North Korea acquired OSA and KOMAR high-speed missile boats in
1968, and began to build its own missile boats in 1981. It has more than 50
missile boats, each equipped with 4 missiles of 46km range and multiple rocket
launchers. In addition, North Korea has about 300 speed boats, 200 torpedo
boats and 170 other gunboats. In case of war, North Korea's small crafts and
submarines will swarm around US career task forces and destroy them. North
Korea has 35 submarines and 65 submersibles.
These
crafts are equipped with torpedoes and will be used to attack US careers. They
will also lay mines and block enemy harbors. North Korea has a large supply of
mines. North Korean submarines are small but they are equipped with 8km rocket
launchers and 70km anti-ship missiles, and they could do some serious damage to
US careers.. e. Air Combats North Korea has three air commands. Each command
has a fighter regiment, a bomber regiment, an AN-2 regiment, an attack
helicopter regiment, a missile regiment, and a radar regiment. Each command can
operate independently. North Korea has 70 airbases, which are fortified against
US attacks. Underground hangars protect the planes and have multiple exits for
the planes to take off on different runways.
North Korea
has several fake airfields and fake planes to confuse US attackers. It is said
that North Korea's planes are obsolete and no match for US planes. North Korea
has 770 fighters, 80 bombers, 700 transports, 290 helicopters, and 84,000 men.
In case of war, North Korean planes will fly low hugging the rugged terrains
and attack enemy targets. US planes are parked above ground at bases in Korea,
Japan, Okinawa and Guam, and make easy targets for missile, rocket and air
attacks. When war breaks out, North Korean missiles, rockets and heavy guns
will destroy the 8 US airbases in South Korea, and any plane in the air would
have no place to land.
North
Korea's fighter planes are ill-equipped for air-to-air combats at long
distances. but they can hold their own in close-quarter air combats. MiG-21
fighters from Bongchun and US F-15 from Ohsan would meet in less than 5 min,
assuming they took off at about the same time. In about 5 min, hundreds of
MiG21s and F-15s would be swirling in the skies over Korea. Ground-to-air
missiles and air-to-air missiles would have hard time telling friends from
foes. F-15Es are equipped with a radar system that lock on at 180 km for large
objects and 90 km for small objects. Sidewinder missiles have an effective
range of 16km, AMRAAM missiles of 50km, and Sparrow of 55km. Korea is 100 km
wide and 125 km long, and so US air-to-air missiles would be of limited use and
effectiveness, because North Korean MiGs would approach the US planes in close
proximity and commingle with US planes, and air-to-air missiles will become
useless and machines guns will have to be used. MiG19s have 30mm guns, MiG21s
have 23mm guns, and F-14s have 20mm Valkans.
North Korean pilots are trained to hug the
enemy planes so that air-to-air missiles cannot be used. In contrast, US pilots
are trained to lock on the enemy at long distance with radar and fire missiles.
US planes are heavily armed with electronics and less agile than the light,
lean MiGs that can climb and turn faster than the US planes. F-14s are about
3.3 times heavier than MiG21s, and F-150Es are about 3.6 times heavier. MiG21s
are 16.6 m long whereas F-14s are 19.1 m and F-15Es 19.43 m long. MiG21s cab
climb to 18km, whereas F-1A can climb to 15.8 km and F-16 to 15.2 km. MiGs get
upper hands in close-range dogfights in which agility matters. In Vietnam, US
planes were forced to jettison auxiliary gas tanks and bombs in order to engage
MiGs. F-150 E planes will carry BLU-113 bunker busters that weigh 2,250 kg each
in the next war in Korea.
Loaded with
such a heavy bomb, F-15s will become easy targets for North Korea's MiGs. US
fighter-bombers will be protected by F-15C fighter escorts. MiG21s are North
Korea's main workhorse. The MiG21 debuted in 1965 in Vietnam and proved itself
as an effective attack fighter. In 1999, North Korea bought 40 MiG21s from
Kazakhstan. During the Vietnam War, MiG17s shot down dozens of American planes.
North Korea sent more than 200 pilots to fight in the Vietnam War. They were
tasked to defend Hanoi and shot down scores of US planes. North Korea sent 25
pilots to Syria during the 3rd Arab-Israeli war of 1966, and 30 pilots to Egypt
and Syria during the 4th Arab-Israeli war of 1973. In 1976, North Korea sent
more than 40 pilots to Syria. f. Electronic Warfare The United States excels in
electronic warfare and no nation comes anywhere near the US capability. North
Korea began developing its own electronic warfare methods in 1970. It is
believed that North Korea has advanced electronic warfare ability.
It has
numerous counter measures for US electronic warfare. During the recent war in
Iraq, the US dropped e-bombs that disabled the Iraqi electronic devices. North
Korea relies heavily on non-electronic command and control means, and hence US
e-bombs will have limited impacts in North Korea. North Korea trains about 100
hackers a year and has computer virus battalions in place. These hackers are
capable of interrupting US communication networks. In a war game conducted in
1991 by US war planners, North Korea came out the victor with and without nuclear
weapons.
Kim Jong Il
has no doubt that his army can beat the US army. 6. US Military Defeats in the
Past Military power dictates the outcome of war. In assessing the next war in
Korea, the military power of the opponents must be examined objectively. Until
now, North Korea's military power has not been properly studied. In general,
Western experts tend to underestimate North Korea's military strength.
Politicians in America and South Korea play down North Korean threats for
political reasons.
It has been said that North Korean army is
large in numbers but their equipment are obsolete, and hence it is a weak army.
The US war planners assess North Korean army using computer simulations of war
in Korea. US war plan for the recent Iraq war was refined using more than 40
computer-simulated wars in Iraq. The computer simulation models use weapon
system features among other factors to determine the outcome. It is true that
the advanced weapons were instrumental in the US victory in the Gulf War,
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. On the other hand, the US army was defeated
by ill-equipped foes in Korea and Vietnam.
The latter
two wars show that superior weapons do not always lead to a victory. North
Korean and Chinese forces in Korea and the Vietnamese forces fought with
superior tactics and stronger fighting fighting spirits. In the next war in
Korea, the US army will face an enemy much more determined and better equipped
than the army in the Korean War of 1950-53.