Can't South Korea defend itself? Why is it our duty to protect them?

[Boojatta]

Also, how can America maintain the respect of people and governments around the world if America is maintaining an Apartheid Wall between South Korea and North Korea while planning to build a similar wall between the southern US States and Mexico?

[Boojatta]

1. Kick

[hack89]

2. They can - they have a very large, high tech military

there are a relatively small number of American combat troops. Their role is political more than military - they in essence are the price of keeping South Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons. We are not maintaining the Korean DMZ - the Koreans man it now. US forces are being withdrawn to the south of the country.

[Selatius]

3. South Korea could defend itself in conventional war with North Korea, but the North possesses nukes.

They likely also possess chemical weapons, and maybe biological weapons as well. However, the point of North Korean nukes is as a deterrence against US attack. Nukes could be used as a first strike weapon, but North Korea likely only has a small number of warheads. It wouldn't make sense for North Korea to waste them on its neighbor.

If a war does ignite between the North and the South, it will most likely be conventional in nature. South Korea has a fair chance given its technological capabilities, but North Korea's military is so much larger in terms of manpower and artillery firepower. They would flatten Seoul in a matter of hours with the number of artillery guns they have perched and hidden in the central ridges above Seoul. They speculate there are thousands of guns hidden up in the mountains, and they have trouble finding them all.