North Korea moves 250 missile launchers to southern border – DW – 08/05/2024
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Pyongyang staged a celebration to mark the deployment of the launchers. North Korea claims stationing more nuclear capable weapons on the border is a necessary deterrent to the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang staged a celebration to mark the deployment of the launchers. North Korea claims stationing more nuclear capable weapons on the border is a necessary deterrent to the US and South Korea.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      31·
      1 month ago

      Maybe.

      This was from earlier this year, so it’s still an issue.

      https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-koreas-kim-warns-failure-provide-food-serious-political-issue-2024-01-25/

      North Korea’s Kim warns failure to provide food a ‘serious political issue’

      I am a bit amused that Reuters selected a side shot of Kim there, to highlight his rotund profile.

      However, I think that this might have more to do with the fact that he just sold off a lot of North Korea’s munitions to Russia, and traditionally, a lot of North Korea’s deterrent is that in the event of any conflict, it’d take about a week for us to wipe out their artillery. They normally keep quite a bit of that at the border, and in that time, they’d cause catastrophic damage to Seoul and its residents.

      https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA619-1.html

      North Korean Conventional Artillery

      A Means to Retaliate, Coerce, Deter, or Terrorize Populations

      North Korea maintains nearly 6,000 artillery systems within range of major South Korean population centers, which it could use to kill many thousands in just an hour, even without resorting to chemical or nuclear weapons. Researchers assessed the magnitude of this threat across five attack scenarios, using estimates of the number of North Korean artillery systems, the population densities of potential target areas, and assumptions about the locations of people at the time of the attacks (outdoors, indoors, and below ground). The strike scenarios assessed were (1) five minutes against a major industrial target, (2) one minute along the DMZ, (3) one minute against downtown Seoul, (4) one hour along the DMZ, and (5) one hour against downtown Seoul. Estimated total casualties from the attacks ranged from about 4,500 to more than 200,000.

  • ZozanoEnglish
    171·
    1 month ago

    Is it that time of year already?

    Okay Kim, we see you, and we know you’re super serious this time. We won’t invade you this time, okay, take care buddy, ciao.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyzEnglish
    61·
    1 month ago

    They need the range, their missile systems suck at reaching their intended targets.

    LMAOOOO

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    41·
    1 month ago

    I wonder why they weren’t there already. It’s not like they need to deter an invasion from China much.

    • BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      1 month ago

      What I’ve heard: the nukes are about internal stability as well as defense. If someone wants to overthrow the Kims they want china to have to be worried about a civil war there, so they will support the current rulers government (more than they already do). An unpredictable nuclear armed state on your border is scary.