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To: Eaker
1 million men, 3800 main battle tanks, 2300 armored personnel carriers, 11000 artillery pieces. 70% are positioned within 90 miles of the South Korean border.
44 posted on 10/15/2006 8:58:54 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: JasonC
1 million men, 3800 main battle tanks, 2300 armored personnel carriers, 11000 artillery pieces.

Little fun fact, here, but the Korean People's Army (KPA) is one of a handful that still fields the T-34 main battle tank. Those tanks are, at best, half a century old.

We were wargaming some stuff out a few years ago, against certain targets in North Korea, and the T-34 popped up on an order of battle chart. Several people in the unit had no idea what they were, and were amazed to find out that they were still around. They were good tanks in the day, and soundly defeated everything the South Koreans, and our own Task Force Smith, initially threw at them. They are deathtraps today.

Their armored units consist mostly of T-72s and T-62. Those tanks are obsolete against what we or the South Koreans have waiting for them. They have almost no fuel for training, and little in the way of spare parts. Their strategic reserves are minimal, at best.

I don't remember their armored personnel carrier types off the top of my head, but without armor leading the way, they'd be sliced to ribbons against the South's defenses. The Korean terrain is murderous, and channels vehicles into narrow valleys, on narrower roads. You'd be better off taking your chances on foot, sneaking through the hills, rather than ride around well known roads in third rate armor.

Their mechanized threat is a joke. The infantry and artillery can cause some trouble, for a while, but they have no staying power. Holding down the trigger until you're out of ammo is a great way to cause chaos, but it won't win you a war.

52 posted on 10/15/2006 9:41:46 PM PDT by Steel Wolf (As Ibn Warraq said, "There are moderate Muslims but there is no moderate Islam.")
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