If you’ve ever wondered just how dangerous the North Korean army are, the Pentagon has released a report detailing, what they believe to be, their military capabilities.
North Korea are pretty secretive about their arms, so most of the Pentagon’s findings have come from outside sources. Luckily though, North Korea also like to brag about their huge army. Very clever.
Speaking of North Korea’s army, the Korean People’s Army Ground Force is about 1 million strong, with countless numbers of civilians also thought to be active reservists. Don’t let that scare you though, they’re allegedly equipped with mostly Soviet era arms, or cheap replicas produced in North Korea or China.
The North Korean air force is about as lethal as a wet paper aeroplane, operating Soviet made MiG-29’s among less capable jets and even biplanes. It’s thought the South Korean air force would be all over their touchy cousins without much of a fight.
While South Korea are busy swatting the North’s planes out of the sky though, their ground forces would have a bit more to deal with. North Korea have hundreds of hella powerful 170mm Koksan artillery guns ready to pulverise South Korea at a moments notice, with 240mm multiple rocket launchers able to hit Seoul from well inside North Korea. They also have numerous, though dated, armoured personnel carriers and tanks, with the Pokpung-ho battle tank being remarkably sophisticated.
The North Korean navy is a bit of a mixed bag. They have one of the largest submarine corps in the world, while their overall navy is the smallest military branch, consisting mostly of small patrol craft.
Now to the meaty stuff – missiles. While the US are monitoring the Taepodong-2 three-stage ballistic missile -because, well, it’s a ballistic missile – North Korea are also using the rocket to launch their satellites into space. On the other hand though, the short range Hwasong missile is definitely used to blow shit up, and could reach Japan if used aggressively. Not much is known about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, other than they do have nukes and they are testing them. Based on their other technology though, they’re probably held together with gaffer tape.
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.