While North Korea continues to suffer from poverty and food shortages that they consistently demand the international community to give them aid for; they have in turn been busy continuing the upgrading and expansion of their military:

A South Korean demonstrator kicks burning portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a rally welcoming the visit of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Seoul, Friday. (AP photo)

North Korea has completed deployment of new medium-range missiles and expanded its military to 1.2 million, South Korea said Monday, calling the threat from its neighbor “direct and serious.” The intermediate-range missiles can travel up to 3,000 kilometers – enough to cover most of Asia – and carry a warhead of up to 650 kilograms, Seoul’s 2008 defense white paper said.

The document was published as the North steps up threats against the South and continues apparent preparations to launch its longest-range missile.

“North Korea’s developing and reinforcing of conventional weaponry, as well as the weapons of mass destruction like nuclear and missiles, and the frontline deployment of military power are a direct and serious threat to our security,” the paper said, using stronger language than in the last paper in 2006.

It did not say how many medium-range missiles the North has “deployed for operational use” since 2007.

It said the overall size of the military had grown by 20,000 to 1.19 million since 2006, but the number of lightly equipped special forces trained swiftly to infiltrate South Korea had increased 50 percent to 180,000.

“After examining the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea appears to have developed new strategies that can complement its shortfalls while reinforcing its strengths,” said Shin Won-Sik, deputy for policy planning at the Defense Ministry.

“Their aim appears to blur the line between friend and foe once a conflict erupts,” Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying, suggesting that the North would wage guerrilla warfare to compensate for a lack of advanced weaponry.  [The Daily Star]

The fact that North Korea plans to use special forces to start a guerilla war is really nothing new, the only thing that is new is that they have greatly expanded their special operations forces. The North Koreans back in the 60’s and 70’s actually tried to use their special forces to launch guerrilla attacks in South Korea to destabilize the South Korean government that ultimately failed.

All the more reason why the US military should relocate the 2nd Infantry Division off the DMZ area to Camp Humphreys south of Seoul as planned and the let the ROK military sort out the nasty unconventional warfare fight that is sure to happen in case of hostilities.  The ROK military is much better able to tell the difference between North Korean guerrillas and South Korean civilians then the US military.