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Re: POLL - Can South Korea militarily defeat Japan?

Hiroshi66

先輩
17 May 2004
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Well, as we know, prior to 1945, Japan was the top military power in Asia, and could defeat South Korea easily, as it did in 1910 and almost as it did in 1592-1598 (though they just took parts of the country, and withdrew with the death of Hideyoshi and because of gueirilla resistance). But today, without any American or foreign intervention, can South Korea military defeat Japan's Jietai?
 
I beleive not. Any incursions by Korea upon Japan would involve the US, and even wihout the JSDF is still a half decent force.

A more interesting scenario would be "Could Japan defeat South Korea?". I'd say perhaps.
 
Depends where the fight is I think...

Is South Korea invading Japan? Then I would think Japan would win due to it's focus on defensive arms. If it was an invasion of Korea by Japan... then I think Korea would win.
 
Ewok85 said:
I beleive not. Any incursions by Korea upon Japan would involve the US, and even wihout the JSDF is still a half decent force.

A more interesting scenario would be "Could Japan defeat South Korea?". I'd say perhaps.

Perhaps the physical size of Japan may be a factor. South Korea is quite small compared to Japan. Also, the Japanese population is much larger (which means more resistance). How about this question: Can Japan defeat North Korea in a war?
 
North Korea? Yeah, it may be a country tooled up for war but South Korea and America would be in that fight so fast you'd wonder who had attacked who.
 
Well, let's make it two questions.

1) If South Korea invaded Japan, and the two fought in a war on the Japanese islands, without American or any foreign intervention, who would win?

2) Same question, but applying to North Korea. Remember, without any foreign intervention.

Thanks guys.
 
Simply wouldnt happen as the US would get involved, so the question is really invalid.
 
no war could be possible

In an ipotetic and fantasy war btwn Jp an Kr I think Kr has more chances...as Korea is steel in war alert from the north situation....
in south Korea the militar service is 3 years....and people mind is always aware from a north attack or receiving missisles attack.
This does not happen in Japan.
I cannot see any possibility of this event as both are us allied....
it could be more possible an attack from North Korea with a ghost help of China....to Japan but why this? It would be a big risk and north Korea should be invaded like the first Gulf war when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Before any other considerations we shoul know the weapons situation
of Jp and Kr number of soldiers (now is not anymore important like in the past as few good professionists are better than many normal soldiers)
and if they have modern army, air force and navy.

Also if one of the 2 are invaded or not....the assault army must move on the other country... in a enemy territory...

Too many considerations to find a responce that could be a little realistic.

If you consider that us army cannot be deafeed in a convetional war...
by anyone...but agaist guerrilla and fast teerosist attacks cannot do a lot.
Us soldiers die one or two a day.....even if they loose 2000 soldiers in a year
is not a big number...as they are more than 140.000 there....
but the people in us everyday could be more and more tired of this sad daily balance...so perhaps the policy will change....as per political pushes who knows what will happen in the next year? The scenario is changing fastly.
bye all
 
Thank you for your replies.

I am not saying this could happen, because it's not. I doubt Japan and South Korea will war anytime soon. Perhaps I should reprase this question - who has a stronger military? South Korea or Japan?
 
If Japan invaded Korea, Korea would "win" (i.e., Korea would succeed in fending off Japan's attacks). If Korea invaded Japan, Japan would "win" (i.e., Japan would drive the Koreans back to their peninsula). I put "win" in quotes, because in reality, both countries would lose, since war between the two countries would be bad for them both. A little skirmish would be very bad PR, and a full-scale war would just be a horrible tragedy.

Which is militarily stronger? I think that's a meaningless question. They are both strong enough to deter anyone who might dream of attacking them. That's all that matters.
 
Well, I meant is the Self Defence or Korean Armed Forces stronger than either one of each other? For example - America is militarily stronger than Britain, though they could fend off invasions.
 
Fictions

SciFi-ish anti-Japan war novels have in fact been rather popular there, like the million-seller 무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다 written by 김진명 (film version available too.)
Story goes like this:

Near future. Espionage actions, political tensions escalate. Japan tries to invade the peninsula but the Korean military fights back, then North and South Korea together nuke Japan. Evil Japan surrenders, the end.

Clichテゥ plot faithfully tracing a certain hatred-based fantasy. It is somewhat surprising that Google searches do not return any page in English, about popular titles or the genre itself.
 
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I personally don't know the difference in numbers and quality of the 2 army
one danger comes from north Korea that one day could send missles to Tokyo or Seoul....that would be another story.....
Now the question could be N.Korea vs South or Japan
N.Korea with chinese help SKorea and Japan with Nato help....
but now most of the nato soldiers are involved in Iraq an Afganistan........
Wath you think about this not so impossible scenario?????
 
After research, its obvious that South Korea has a stronger military and a larger one too. Japan's SDF just isn't as trained as its Imperial Army predecessor. But I think if South Korea invaded the Japanese islands, Japan could with nationalism fend them off.
 
I heard that South Korea has the best Navy Seals, even better than the US, this from reliable sources. I would tell you, but I'd have to kill ya. Anyways, I dont think South Korea could win against japan. JApan is like the worlds 4th largest spender in millitary. Also south korea relies too much on US back up, so hmmm, maybe it could be possible, but i doubt it.
 
I dunno. The Jietai is underestimated, we haven't seen it in combat except in 1992 Cambodia and 2003 Iraq, and combat isn't a good word, we haven't seen it IN ACTION.
 
It easily can. But the Japanese government will not be allowed to allow this sort of nationalism by pressure from the international community, even if the Koreans attack the Japanese islands. The Jietai could defeat them, but the ROK is much better prepared for invasions than Japan - as the Koreans know they have a huge DPRK invasion force on the other side of the DMZ.
 
Frankly speaking, I think that South Korea will never launch an attack against another country. The Koreans are basically peaceful people. They don't really like to fight if you don't go and disturb them. It is more likely that people bully them rather than they bully people.
 
seasurfer said:
Frankly speaking, I think that South Korea will never launch an attack against another country. The Koreans are basically peaceful people.

I agree, South Korea does seem peaceful, and neither side would risk a conflict because if they start fighting, North Korea would join in and they attempt to invade Japan or South Korea. Then of course, the US would send in reserve troops because most of its troops are in the middle east, and a mini-World War III would start... (another Tom Clancy novel anyone?)

Besides, if South Korea wanted to defeat Japan, it would do it economically, which isn't too impossible with its growing industries.
 
Guys, you're missing my point here. This topic was not meant as a prediction - it was meant as an opinionated question. South Korea will never attack Japan, and if they do, America will be there ASAP. But who has a stronger military? That's my question.

Thanks for the links.
 
Hiroshi66 said:
Guys, you're missing my point here. This topic was not meant as a prediction - it was meant as an opinionated question. South Korea will never attack Japan, and if they do, America will be there ASAP. But who has a stronger military? That's my question.

Thanks for the links.

Oh! Sorry about going off topic.

Alright then, personally, I think South Korea will win. They probably have more exprerinece from the Korean War, though they were defending and not attacking.

I would say that South Korea is better prepared for a conflict.
 
I am not very into military things,I have no intelligince about Japanese SDF.
so I cannot compare.

but what I know about ROK military is that the ROK army had very good record in Vietnamese war,I forgot the exact number but moderately remember that the record was better than the US soldiers in Vietnam.

"the Koreans accounted for 192 Viet Cong killed as against only eleven Koreans"

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/Vietnam/allied/ch06.htm#p3

About the ROKairforce,I served for ROK airforce but I do not know where we stand.

About the ROK navy,most recently ,we had the 100 % hitting record and that was the best among the partipants countries in Tandem Thrust 2004 naval training in Guam.
And the ROK navy was the only participant who had no naval ship trouble during the training.

http://www.pacom.mil/news/news.shtml

cheers
 
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