North Korea is obviously causing trouble right now.
The nation led by Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is flexing its muscles against President Trump and the USA.
But you might be shocked by the capability of North Korea’s military power.
Surprisingly, North Korea has the 4th largest military in the world at approximately 1.2 million personnel.
Kim Jong Un’s policy is called “Songun”, which literally means “military first”.
The highest proportion of GDP is spent on military and their citizens are forced into some sort of training under the regime.
Not only do they spend about $11 billion annually on military, they also claim to have a reserve as high as 10 million people – their entire population is approximately 25 million people.
Fox News reports:
Commandos or caricatures?
“Commandos, shown here at Kim II Sung Square during a military parade on April 15, don’t have state-of-the-art equipment, according to experts.
Some of the most memorable images to emerge from North Korea’s dramatic parade featured the special operations “commandos” who were carrying what appeared to be AK-47’s with grenade-launching capabilities.
It turns out that what many people believed to be grenade launchers are actually what’s known as “helical” magazines, a piece of equipment that organizes rounds in a spiral shape to maximize capacity and that is notorious for jamming, according to Pregent.
Pregent adds that not only do these types of magazines have a high-failure rate, there is still the question of whether any of these rifles are actually loaded, as ammunition manufacturing is considered a serious issue for the isolated regime.
Even suglasses, which are not the wraparound, protective type worn by western army special operators, are dubious, say experts.
It’s not just the weapons those commandos are holding that raise questions, Pregent claims, and it seems some of the equipment on display would make for a better fashion show than a foxhole.
Pregent claims that the type of sunglasses being worn by those same troops “looks like a flat-face frame, and that’s not ballistic. That would wraparound and would also protect your eyes.”
Even the fingerless gloves being sported by some of those soldiers are more for show, according to Pregent. “Some of our guys do have them, but most guys go all the way with full gloves based on the heat of the barrel from a round, not to mention they’re fire resistant if you need to pick up something.”
“Fake projectiles”
Whatever the shortcomings of North Korea’s foot soldiers, experts don’t doubt the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear capability.
Some of the other eye-drawing items in the North Korean parade, items that may have zero combat application, are the seemingly oversized projectiles affixed to the end of some of those soldiers’ rifles. And while they apparently come in a variety of shapes and colors, Pregent calls them “laughable.”
Kim’s military exercises are likely designed to instill fear in his own people as much as outsiders.”
They have tanks and rocket artillery that is sufficient but obviously dwarfed by the United States.
Their planes are a joke however.
The backbone of their “Air Force” consists of 230 MIG-17s, which are subsonic 1950s gun-armed fighters that are helpless against South Korea F-15s.
And the rest of their “Air Force” is even worse. Dated and simply pathetic compared to the rest of the 1st world.
And then you have the “Korean People’s Navy” which is even more laughable and amazingly horrible.
Their “Navy” is about half the size of the United States’ Coast Guard.
Yeah, that’s right. Their boats aren’t big enough to sail from one side of the country to the other.
It’s pathetic.
So, yes, they have nuclear weapons.
But they know any attack would devastate their country, and while Kim Jong Un might be crazy, he’s not stupid.
He’s willing to risk his citizens’ lives, but not his own.
And if he does anything – anything at all – then he will be more wanted than Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein combined.