Really good blog: "Ask a Korean", keeps it simple but informative

[rainbow4321]

Kinda like "Koreas 101" or, in my case, "Koreas for Dummies":

Just a small snippit of it's content, a potential scenario on how it could all play out:


http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/11/north-koreas-shelling-of-yeonpyeong-do.html




Against this backdrop, North Korea has exactly three things to count on -- (1) artillery and missiles pointed at Seoul; (2) threat of nuclear attack; (3) China. The first point is crucial and cannot be overstated -- North Korea needs nothing else other than conventional artillery and short-range missiles to vaporize a significant portion of Seoul, South Korea's capital and a city of 10 million people, within one hour or so. And there is no way to intercept conventional artillery shells. The best South Korea can do is to bomb the artillery bases after the first round of shells are fired -- and by then, Seoul is already a pile of rubble. (Ironically, this makes the threat of nuclear attack nearly meaningless when it comes to South Korea -- no need for a nuke when artilleries will do. North Korea's nuclear threat is really more for the U.S. and Japan.)

[HEyHEY]

1. Meh

I don't buy that. To actually flatten Seoul in one hour would be quite a feat. It's a big city, though it is dense.

[galileoreloaded]

2. Absolutely possible. Their sustained ROF is massive. n/t

[rainbow4321]

3. Frigging scary...

To think that all or part of this may be happening because junior in NK wants to look "tough" and be the popular kid in the sandbox:

From the blog link:

"I was in the middle of translating a post from Mr. Joo Seong-Ha, who had heard from his North Korean informants that the younger Kim is hated by regular North Koreans. Few excuses are better than the threat of war to crack down the opposition"