Back in the 1950s, the gap in the quality of their equipment wasn’t as wide, and the NK’s weren’t as malnourished and hungry as they are now.
On the other hand, they didn’t have nukes back then either...
“Back in the 1950s, the gap in the quality of their equipment wasn’t as wide...”
That is a really good point. I have read that a lot of NK equipment is old and poorly maintained - basically rusting in place. That being the case, I imagine NK will rely even more heavily on nuclear weapons should they initiate war.