You’re forgetting the proverbial gun to the head that the north has on the south. The amount of artillery pointed at seoul is crazy.
Yup!
"“Without moving a single soldier in its million-man army,” Klingner said. “The North could launch a devastating attack on Seoul.”
...
An arsenal of 600 chemically armed Scud missiles would be fired on all South Korean airports, train stations and marine ports, making it impossible for civilians to escape,
...
Even with North Korea’s first wave of attacks, war planners still believe the U.S. and South Korea would come out on top, but the casualties could be catastrophic."
Not forgetting it - assuming that if the NORKs are allowed to do as they will because they can kill a lot of folks with a salvo of missiles, then we may as well concede that they win.
They can cause a lot of initial, convulsive damage, but that would be it for them.