Key Points

• North Korea has an enormous standing army.
• South Korea has a major technological advantage.
• Any conflict between the two would be very messy.
• Also: Analysts just named the Next Nvidia

Summary

Austin Smith and Michael Muir discuss the significant differences between North and South Korea’s military capabilities. North Korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world, with around 1.3 million soldiers. That’s almost as many as the United States’ 1.4m, but its equipment is largely outdated, relying on Cold War-era technology. Despite having nuclear capabilities, the extent of their missile range and operational readiness is uncertain. In contrast, South Korea boasts a modern, well-equipped military with advanced technology, including a strong navy and air force. South Korea is also a leading arms manufacturer, producing modern tanks and aircraft. Both countries have conscription, but North Korea’s period is significantly longer, indicating different approaches to military readiness.

Transcript:

The scale of countries.

Let’s go the other direction and look at maybe a conflict.

North Korea and South Korean military.

Let’s say unification is impossible, attempts are unproductive.

What does it look like?

Can you compare them?

Well, yeah, I think we should start by comparing the militaries of North and South Korea as a good starting point for any discussion about a conflict.

Of course, this would not be an isolated conflict, but we’ll get into that.

So North Korea has a very large standing army, one of the largest in the world.

For a country of, I believe, 25, 26 million people, it has a gigantic standing army.

It’s about 1.3 million strong.

They have a large air force and a large navy, but the problem with those two branches is they are ancient.

One of the consequences of isolation is you don’t really get a lot of the newest and best military gear.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, in the 1990s, that was North Korea’s main sort of weapons provider gone.

Their indigenous industry isn’t particularly strong.

So most of the equipment that North Korea has is Cold War era.

They have a handful of modern tanks that they built themselves.

They’re obviously untested in real combat.

I believe they have at least one nuclear submarine, a lot of mini subs, but their operational range, naively, very limited.

What they do have an abundance of is artillery, which is a major factor in a potential conflict, which we will get into.

Their air force is nothing compared to South Korea’s.

Their jets are all decades out of date.

I don’t think they have any modern aircraft.

But obviously, the big worrying thing that they do have is nuclear and ballistic missiles.

Information about North Korea’s nuclear program is obviously impossible to get a hold of, so we don’t really know exactly how many nukes they have, but it’s probably 50.

One thing that is also really concerning is how many weapons tests North Korea have conducted in the last couple of years.

That is a big change from the past.

You’d maybe get a dozen per year at most, but I believe in 2022 they did over 90.

Theoretically, we don’t know exactly how far their range is, but they do have launchers that are capable of hitting mainland United States, but they’re unproven.

And I don’t think they have that capability yet, but I think American bases, in South Korea are absolutely in range, Guam possibly, maybe Japan as well.

That’s largely unproven, but that’s the big concern is the amount of pain they can inflict, not necessarily the overall quality of their forces.

But to compare them to South Korea, South Korea’s Navy is modern, large, well-equipped.

The only thing it lacks is aircraft carriers, which obviously its chief ally has an abundance of.

Its air force is also very large, very strong, very modern.

And they also have locally built fighters, the F850, excuse me.

Which is just as capable as anything on the market.

They’re a leading producer of tanks as well.

Poland have ordered a thousand K2 Black Panthers.

They’re importing 200 and they’re going to get the license to build another 800.

So South Korea is a leading arms manufacturer in the world today and their military reflects that.

In terms of numbers, their standing army is about half as strong as North Korea’s, but.

They have a lot of trained reservists.

So both North and South Korea have conscription.

North Korea is the longest period in the world by far.

They have a 10-year conscription period.

That’s down from 13 years.

And women are also conscripted widely in North Korea.

In South Korea, it’s different, but they still have a conscription period of 18 to 21 months.

Pretty much everybody has to do it, even like K-pop stars still have to do military service.

There’s no getting away from it unless you’re an elite athlete.

Let’s.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.