WE HAVE ENOUGH SHOVELS:

New Warplan Calls for Invasion of North Korea (Richard Halloran, November 14, 1998, Global Beat)

United States and South Korean military commanders are completing a new war plan intended not only to repel a North Korean invasion if hostilities erupt but to invade North Korea to demolish its armed forces, capture the capital at Pyongyang, and destroy the North Korean regime.

Said a senior U.S. official: "When we're done, they will not be able to mount any military activity of any kind. We will kill them all."

He said the combined forces of the U.S. and South Korea would abolish North Korea as a functioning state, end the rule of its leader, Kim Jong Il, and reorganize the country under South Korean control. [...]

Officials here said the new war plan was being devised because North Korea's armed force of 1 million troops equipped with largely obsolete weapons is deteriorating by the day as the nation's economic disasters take their toll. American officials fear that North Korea, on the verge of collapse, might strike out in desperation. "They may figure 'use it or lose it,'" said an officer familiar with North Korea.

A target of high priority would be the North Korean artillery corps deployed north of the DMZ where it could fire due south toward Seoul. Many of North Korea's 10,600 artillery pieces are old and have limited range but about 200 multiple rocket launchers of 240 millimeters could hit Seoul to inflict severe damage. They are at the top of the target list.

Much of that artillery is parked in underground shelters that have been spotted by U.S. intelligence satellites and aircraft. Those guns must be pulled out to fire and thus become vulnerable. They can also be neutralized by bombing exits before they emerge. "We can bury them," said a military planner.

This was five years ago--they have to be in even worse shape now. Time to test all these Democrats who say Korea's a bigger problem and end the problem of North Korea once and for all, fifty years after we should have. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 8, 2003 6:05 AM