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I dunno. You might be right or perhaps Lucy's slant on NK troops is.
I guess if I was going to bet on it I'd put NK's in the same category of what at the time was the supposed vaunted troops of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, alleged seasoned fighters from the Iran war and fiercely loyal to Saddam, who when push came to shove during Desert Storm disappeared like tents in a hurricane.
Unfortunately, there's only one way to find out though.[/QUOTE]
Both had the 4th largest standing army. Saddam in 1990, N. Korea today. The issue is Saddam's was MUCH better equipped. N. Korea's military (outside of nuclear weapons) is behind where Iraq was 27 years ago. Their primary fighters are still Mig 17's and 21's. Poorly funded upkeep on jets that couldn't win air superiority 40 years ago. Even worse, their only bomber... Yeah Russia was designing that thing 70 years ago. Their primary battle tank was a Russian design they were hoping would win WWII. A very large chunk of their equipment is WWII vintage.
And their military is poorly trained, and severely underfunded. That's why strategic nukes are so important to them, it's the only possible way they can level the playing field.
They have two deterrents. 1 Seoul is within easy striking distance of rockets/artillery and they've built up enough of that where the damage could be catastrophic to an area that 26 million people live in/around. 2. Nukes.