[HN Gopher] North Korean Tactics (2020) [pdf] ___________________________________________________________________ North Korean Tactics (2020) [pdf] Author : openasocket Score : 60 points Date : 2022-08-02 18:39 UTC (4 hours ago) (HTM) web link (irp.fas.org) (TXT) w3m dump (irp.fas.org) | nimbius wrote: | page 1-12 is...generous. | | "Due to the United States' ability to overwhelm almost any | opponent with technology and firepower..." | | with the exception of Iraq, afghanistan, korea, cuba, and vietnam | at no real point in these battles was our technological | sophistication or "firepower" a decisive capability that led to a | victory. in fact in afghanistan during the last six days of | conflict our exodus led to perhaps the largest single _transfer_ | of sixth generation advanced western warfighting technologies to | an enemy in the history of armed conflict. the Taliban had a | blackhawk helicopter over the city as a command presence in _less | than a day._ | | the entire book also neglects to highlight a real point of | contention: the US never formally declared any end of hostility | to North Korea. | | again in 1-16 | | "To deter any foe from attacking, the country has threatened the | use of nuclear weapons against South Korea, Japan, or any | reachable U.S. military facility in Asia" | | the 2020 document neglects to mention North Koreas ICBM system | can now successfully reach most targets in the United States, so | any real effort toward regime change is completely off the table. | https://www.popsci.com/north-koreas-new-icbms-can-reach-most... | simonh wrote: | > the US never formally declared any end of hostility to North | Korea. | | There's no reason they should. The US never declared any | hostilities with North Korea, and North Korea never declared | any hostilities formally with anyone either. US forces were the | major participant in a United Nations mandated intervention, in | response to North Korean forces crossing the border, so the US | as a nation was technically never directly a participant in the | conflict. | | If anyone was going to declare anything in that regard, it | would be the United Nations. The armistice agreement was signed | by two US generals, true, but they did so on behalf of the | United Nations Command, not the United States. | legalcorrection wrote: | The US had the military might to extract total submission from | the populations of those countries. Anytime someone attacks | your troops, kill them and their family and raze their | neighborhood/town. But that would obviously be at odds with | long term and broader goals. | openasocket wrote: | The method of harsh reprisals and collective punishment, | besides being morally bankrupt, actually has a pretty bad | track record. The Nazi's in occupied Yugoslavia, among other | places, had a policy of executing 100 random civilians for | every German soldier killed. But this had the exact opposite | impact on the resistance movement, actually increasing | resistance sentiment. | bostonsre wrote: | Would be interesting to compare the nazi methodology with | the Russian way of war in chechnya. Russia seemed to get | submission through not very nice means. | mc32 wrote: | They both tended to use locals to do their dirty work. | For example in Chechnya they didn't use many "Slavic" | Russians but mostly Allies from Chechnya or ex-republics | of the CCCP. The red nazis also recruited locals. | pdabbadabba wrote: | > page 1-12 is...generous. | | The sentence you are criticizing is, itself, a direct | acknowledgement of the fact that simply "overwhelming" an | adversary with technology and firepower is not sufficient for | victory. The full sentence reads "Due to the United States' | ability to overwhelm almost any opponent with technology and | firepower, the KPA emphasizes asymmetric warfare in conjunction | with large numbers of SOF units"--much like the tactics | employed by the U.S.'s adversaries in Iraq, Afghanistan, and | Vietnam | tablespoon wrote: | > with the exception of Iraq, afghanistan, korea, cuba, and | vietnam at no real point in these battles was our technological | sophistication or "firepower" a decisive capability that led to | a victory. | | So? In Iraq, at least, it led to the rapid collapse of the | Iraqi government and military and execution of its leaders. | North Korea _doesn 't care_ if the US ultimately succeeds in | meeting its goals, it cares if the North Korean state is | defeated. | | > the Taliban had a blackhawk helicopter over the city as a | command presence in _less than a day_. | | So? The real question is: is it still flying? | | IIRC, the US backed government of Afghanistan had trouble | keeping its own aircraft flying without support from Western | maintenance contractors. I highly doubt the Taliban will do | better, especially since it's cut off from a supply of spare | parts. | dudyr5fjo wrote: | Jtsummers wrote: | You skipped the end of that first sentence: | | > Due to the United States' ability to overwhelm almost any | opponent with technology and firepower, _the KPA emphasizes | asymmetric warfare in conjunction with large numbers of SOF | units._ [emphasis mine] | | Which seems to imply that NK is, indeed, preparing for | something more like Vietnam, Afghanistan, or the second Iraq | war, or at least whoever prepared this believes they are. | mechanical_bear wrote: | Ability and Political Will are two different things. | PostOnce wrote: | There seem to be a few misconceptions or oversights here: | | The US military can essentially break almost any government | instantly, insurgency is a different beast. That's no mystery. | | North Korean ICBMs can theoretically reach America in the same | way that I can theoretically walk into the Kremlin and choke | Putin to death with my bare hands. | | In practice, it's unlikely. There are preventive measures in | place. | | As for the Taliban getting ahold of an ancient helicopter, I | don't think it's a major concern. You may have seen that | anything of real value was first destroyed, as is standard | practice. | | The US is not going to declare an end to hostility with North | Korea and has no reason to and many reasons not to. | ARandomerDude wrote: | > Songbun is a three-tier class system divided into 51 categories | that was created by the Kim regime to isolate and control | perceived internal political threats. It is very difficult to | move up even from one category to the next-higher category, but | it is very easy to move downward. Even an elite person living in | Pyongyang can commit an infraction and be exiled to the country | with a much lower songbun. Every person above the age of 17 in | North Korea has a file maintained by the government that contains | the individual's songbun. | | Sad: This type of social credit score system seems pervasive and | will no doubt be here soon. | | Doubly sad: many of the FAANGers here on HN will bring it about. | Mizza wrote: | Songbun is actually a good word we can use for it as it creeps | into western society. | Mizza wrote: | Section 1-21 is interesting to me right now as I'm currently | listening to season 3 of the Blowback podcast and this season is | all about the Korean War. Their history of events is very | different than how it is presented here. | horns4lyfe wrote: | Cool, another army manual that no Soldier will read. In all | seriousness, though, sounds really interesting | omginternets wrote: | Enlistees? No. Officers? Yeah, absolutely. | UberFly wrote: | Sure they do depending on their job/rank. This is a case where | RTFM might actually severely matter to those you work with. | orangepurple wrote: | Officers, warrant officers, and noncommissioned officers (NCO) | study these in depth on the job depending on their U.S. Army | Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) and rank. | openasocket wrote: | Note for those reading this: I'm pretty sure the diagrams in the | first part of Chapter 6 are all mislabeled. The diagram labeled | as an encirclement maneuver is really a penetration maneuver, the | penetration maneuver diagram is really of a thrust maneuver, etc. | jgbmlg wrote: | The Songbun caste system is the weakness that renders the North | Korean society inherently unstable. The most able members of the | society are discriminated against the most. And the more powerful | and resource consuming "Core" members are not selected on the | basis of merit. I think that there is historical precedent for | the political principle that Aristocracy will eventually be | replaced by meritocracy, but there may be revolutionary | instability first. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-08-02 23:00 UTC)