War with North Korea: An inside look at how U.S. troops would respond worldwide

[rug]

By: Todd South and Jeff Schogol, May 21, 2017

The Trump administration sees no good military options in North Korea.

The rogue regime’s missile tests are growing more frequent, and Kim Jong-Un is closer than ever to being able to deliver a nuclear-tipped missile to the United States’ West Coast.

Yet given Seoul’s proximity to the border, military leaders fear that any preemptive strike would almost certainly set in motion a cataclysmic chain of events resulting in profound loss of life.

Recently, the military has taken a back seat to the State Department, where U.S. officials continue to push diplomatic and economic measures, hopeful, with the help of China, it can pressure the regime to halt its provocations voluntarily.

But if diplomatic efforts fail and a conventional war ensued with all but nuclear weapons being deployed, experts agree that the scenario would involve massive amounts of U.S. and South Korean forces in the first days — and possibly drag on for many months or longer.

In a Friday press conference, when asked by reporters about the current tensions with North Korea, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said, “If this goes to a military solution, it’s going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale.”

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/war-with-north-korea-an-inside-look-at-how-us-troops-would-respond-worldwide

[Lurks Often]

1. While the article isn't inaccurate, it does give NK perhaps more credit then it deserves

The overall article tone is that just about everything will go North Korea's way and nothing will go South Korea & the US's way, which is unlikely.

A question that no one really knows, is the average North Korean soldier willing and able to fight well or will their very heavy casualties cause many of them to try and desert or surrender? Also, what effect will decades of malnutrition in NK have on the average NK soldier? Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17774210

Much or all of their military equipment is either early 1970's Russian equipment or older and any home built equipment would be comparable.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_People%27s_Army#People.27s_Navy