“The threat of provocation by North Korea remains a constant possibility as Kim Jong-un moves ahead with building his regime,” it said in a report to the president. The ministry said this move was part of efforts to stay alert and guard against North Korean threats. The South’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it would sign a joint operational plan with Washington this month to counter potential aggression, and increase the number of joint exercises with U.S. North Korea has a long history of using bellicose language against the South, especially since the conservative government of Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008 and ended a policy of engagement with the North. The North has threatened to turn the South’s capital, Seoul, into a “sea of fire” on numerous occasions and repeated that rhetoric again last week. and South Korean air power alone would quickly turn the advantage their way. troop levels, the North’s forces would stand no chance of winning a war because their equipment was vastly inferior.Įxperts say that while the North might have the early edge in any war, U.S. troops.īut analysts say that even though the North’s army far outnumbers the combined South Korean and U.S. South Korea’s armed forces number nearly 700,000, and they are backed by about 28,000 U.S. “We need to remember that the North is far superior in terms of the number of troops, and especially the North’s military is structured in its formation and deployment with the purpose of an offensive war.” “The depressing reality is it would not be entirely wrong to say North Korea’s military strength is stronger,” the institute said.

Total military personnel strength is 1.2 million. The Seoul-based Korea Economic Research Institute said in a report that in 2011 North Korea operated a 1.02-million-strong army and a record number of tanks, warships and air defense artillery. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. REUTERS/KCNA THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. North Korea's military staged a huge funeral procession on Wednesday in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased 'dear leader,' Kim Jong-il, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un.

North Koreans gather during a memorial for the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, in this KCNA picture released December 29, 2011.

Tank battles in korean war