this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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[–] egeres@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Does north korea have actually good military power? I've seen their parades here and there, but does anyone know if they have updated equipment, trained military personnel, good intelligence, etc?

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They have massive amount of soldiers and are good and making artillery and missiles. It is a big black box however since they haven't been engaged in a conflict recently so all their troops lack experience.

Their economy is practically built for conflict so it shouldn't be taken lightly.

[–] egeres@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, I don't think numbers is everything, lacking experience or leadership can tip the balance against you in a blink

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I have a feeling that they will have very low morale because of lack of motivating factors. Desertion might also become a massive problem since this is one of the few ways to get out of the DPRK.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

Few will desert as their families back home will pay the price for that.

[–] SuspiciousCatThing@pawb.social 2 points 2 months ago

True, but we've already seen from Russia what sheer numbers can do, even under-equipped and untrained.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

It is a big black box however since they haven’t been engaged in a conflict recently so all their troops lack experience.

They've been deployed to Syria since at least 2019 and assisted Hezbollah in its tunnel networks going back decades.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Military is the only thing they have. It might not be the most modern, but they have more artilery shells than any other country. Other stockpiles are huge AF as well. Almost 4% of their population are in active military service and 2% more are reservists. In terms of head count, they have almost as many active personel as Russia while having a fraction of population. Plenty of disposable meat!

[–] Shard@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Agreed that they have a pretty big military in terms of raw numbers. I'm not going to discuss quality because the biggest question mark here is force projection.

How are they planning on sending over any significant manpower and supplies across 2800km?

They don't even have a navy capable of circumnavigating the korean peninsula, much less make the trip to Ukraine or the wrong side of Russia.

They have 2 transport aircraft, the bigger of the 2 has a max passenger capacity of 44 pax. Neither of those have the range to get near Ukraine when flying fully fueled, nevermind if it were fully loaded.

[–] ammonium@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

How are they planning on sending over any significant manpower and supplies across 2800km?

Rail? They border Russia and there's a railroad over the border

[–] egeres@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I didn't know this, damn, that's moving a lot of troops across a length of ~8.000 km in rail

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Kim Jong Un has a pretty cool train also to use the rail

[–] bluewing@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

There is rail and I'm pretty sure Russia still has plenty of cargo/transport planes that would be capable.

[–] Woht24@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's all smoke and mirrors, the majority of their stockpiles would be bordering on defunct. Modern equipment they have is far and few between, their training is subpar.

Plenty of disposable meat is certainly correct though!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

You may be right. We just saw how Russia performed in the war in Ukraine despite the prior years of flexing lol. It's not impossible to believe that the North Korean military is the same.