OPINION: I believe that Japan has considered, and still is considering all of its options.
True. But few understand how it could escalate.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/21/nkorea.war/
North Korea: The cost of conflict
By Andrew Demaria CNN (snipped)
Casualties
When the U.S. drew up plans for a possible military action against North Korea in 1993 -- again over its suspected nuclear weapons program -- a Pentagon estimate suggested four months of high-intensity combat would be required, using more than 600,000 South Korean troops and half a million U.S. reinforcements to the personnel already stationed in South Korea. In 1994, advisers to then President Bill Clinton predicted 52,000 U.S. casualties in the first 90 days of combat alone, Don Oberdorfer, a former Washington Post reporter, wrote in his book The Two Koreas. To put that figure in perspective, 55,000 U.S. military personnel were killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, and about 58,000 in the 1957-75 Vietnam War. Some estimates went as far as forecasting a million casualties, not to mention economic damages and war-related costs that ran into trillions of dollars. Now, the casualty estimates are higher, with North Korea's massive firepower moving closer to U.S. and South Korean forces stationed on the border.
To wage a campaign against North Korea would require hundreds of thousands of extra U.S. troops. That's a tough demand -- despite Washington's claims to be able to fight two separate conflicts simultaneously -- given the military build up in the Persian Gulf and ongoing operations in Afghanistan. . .
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=53720272/K=korea/v=2/SID=w/l=NSR/R=45/SIG=1260uuio3/*-http%3A//straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,276340,00.html
OCT 6, 2004
China could get drawn into war on Korean peninsula (snip)
SEOUL - South Korea's military authorities said yesterday they expected that China would be drawn inevitably into any war on the Korean peninsula because of a mutual assistance treaty with North Korea. 'China is expected to provide limited military support to North Korea, according to a provision of the mutual assistance treaty stipulating automatic engagement,' Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Kim Jong Hwan told a parliamentary hearing.
China would deploy some 400,000 troops in support of North Korea in case of war with South Korea, which would be backed by its ally the United States, according to JCS data provided to the hearing. China's support would include 800 planes and 150 navy vessels, the JCS data said. The South Korea-US combined troops would number 720,000, while North Korea's regular 1.17-million-men military would be reinforced with 6.34 million reserve forces, according to the data.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/04/29/n_koreas_nuclear_capability_said_higher/
N. Korea's nuclear capability said higher
US official cites ability to arm ballistic missile
By Bradley Graham and Glenn Kessler, Washington Post | April 29, 2005 (snip)
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's top military intelligence officer said yesterday that North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device, stunning senators he was addressing and prompting attempts by other defense and intelligence officials later to play down the impact. The statement by Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby before the Senate Armed Services Committee marked the first time that a US official had publicly attributed such a capability to North Korea. Although US intelligence authorities have said for years that North Korea possesses nuclear weapons and could probably reach the United States with its long-range rockets, they had stopped short of asserting that North Korea had mastered the difficult task of miniaturizing a nuclear device to fit atop a ballistic missile.
Later in the day, the Defense Intelligence Agency, which Jacoby heads, issued a statement seeking to portray the admiral's assessment as nothing new and still largely theoretical. It cited his testimony last month before the same committee, where he said North Korea is developing a missile that could deliver a nuclear warhead to parts of the United States.
But those comments dealt with the ability of the North Korean missile, known as the Taepo Dong 2, to go the distance with a nuclear warhead -- not whether North Korea could mount such warheads on its missiles. . .