Its all nice to talk about invading North Korea but as users have pointed out China and even somewhat Russia have ties to North Korea. You would need their support in order to avoid a possible world war. Also North Korea has 3,500,000 soldiers in their army. While poorly equiped that is more then enough brute force to invade and conquer South Korea. Also remember North Korea has thousands of artillery and long range weapons aimed at Seoul and could flatten most major cities over night.
Winning such a war would probubly require the US and even Nato to conscript the majority of their citizens into the army. Losses of millions of lives are probable. Unlike Afghanistan a war in Korea could destabalize the whole earth. While the US and Nato are invading and dealing with North Korea other rogue states like Iran could take advantage of the US being weak and launch operations against Israel and Saudi Arabia and other US allies. A war of this size would change the political and military landscape for years.
If a war started without China supporting the US. I think the US and Nato would have to surrender Seoul. Sure they could bombard the north for months on end from air craft carriers. But the North with its huge army would over run the South in days. Any defences the south has would be flattened by long range weapons.
I think the real action that Nato should take and probubly will is putting pressure on China to raise sanctions higher. Maybe cause China to blockade North Korea to a degree. If the North threatens China's relationships with the rest of the world China might allow the impossition of more sanctions. But in all honesty we have already sanctioned the hell out of North Korea and they don't seem to be stopping.
But if China imposed sanctions on the North we might see over the next decade changes gradually from North Korea. Also once Kim is dead his successor might thaw relations. Here's hoping a return to war in Korea does not occur.
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
