European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 29, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Kors to it Fokje a huge portrait of North korean president Kim it Sung was drawn in the packed grandstand of Pyongyang s Kim to Sung stadium on the president s 80th birthday in 1992. Kim ii Sung still at his nation s Helm four decades after the korean Warby Robert Dvorchak the associated press there was no escalating tension no prolonged diplomatic chess match no guessing game played with a strongman s whims. When the korean War started 44 years ago last saturday it was a Surprise t Only one thing was the same a Kirrill Sung was the Leader of North Korea and the United states had no idea w hat a Everre going to do. Quot it is remarkable How Little we understand this regime Quot Sai  Mcnaugher a military strategist with the Brookings institution. Quot there s no More Wisdom Abby what Itne fight do than there a in 1950.&Quot but 1is not 1950. Militarily and politically so much is different from the Days of the korean War that the a North would Likely cause its own annihilation if it resumed its attempt at Conquest. Quot it s almost a 180-degree difference Quot said retired col. Harry Summers a korean War Veteran and a distinguished fellow at the . Army War College. Quot North Korea is isolated in the world. It May have the Force to take Seoul in one leap but it could not overrun the entire Peninsula. It would destroy itself in the  on june 25, 1950, the North sent seven soviet trained assault divisions and 7 50 t-34 tanks against a defenceless South. Seoul just 25 Miles South of the 38th parallel fell in four Days. But the aggressors lost a Gamble that Amer i Ca to u in t i n the Rene it did As Leader of a United nations coalition. Although the North eventually captured All but a Small pocket of the Peninsula its army was thrown Back to the Northern Border of the Yalu River within five months and had collapsed. But when the chinese entered the War the result was a stalemate not far from where the War started three years one month and two Days earlier. A four million men women and children were killed or wounded during the War the United states had 54,246 dead and 103,284 wounded. In the aftermath America stationed 37,000 troops in South Korea a combat ready professionals who Are a far cry from the ill equipped ill prepared . Forces rushed into combat in 1950 a As a tripwire to deter future invasions. And it rebuilt South Korea Yarmy into a More formidable fighting Force while the closer look country s Economy flourished. But across the 38th parallel the adversary is the same Kim ii Sung the self proclaimed great Leader. A soviet officer in world War ii he remains in Power As the world s last stalinist Leader. President Clinton who  4 years old when the War started is. The 10th Man to occupy the White House since 1950. And no one knows what Kim ii Sung will do next whether it s building a bomb or seizing the reconnaissance ship  Pueblo blow ing up a South korean Airliner or. Assassinating South korean Cabinet officials. Korea was partitioned at the end of world War ii to disarm the Defeated japanese which had occupied the country since 1910. According to a . Proposal the americans administered the South the soviets patrolled the North. Elections to establish a single government were set by the United nations in 1947. But by that time the soviets had Cut rail lines and set up roadblocks along the Man made demarcation and two Korea emerged. Kim did not accept partition and turned to War. Forty four years later it seems he still does not accept \  second korean War would be far different if a shooting War again erupts the situation is much different from 1950, when president Harry Truman a response to the invasion was a we be got to Stop the sons of bitches no matter  . Soldiers already Are on the firing line South koreans defences Are much stronger and North Korea is less Likely to get military assistance from China or the successors of the soviet Union. American air superiority is unquestioned and because three fourths of Korea is surrounded by water the . Navy could mass its firepower. Army and Marine reinforcements could respond much More quickly. Still Korea is blanketed with craggy mountains that Render most of it unsuitable for tanks. And its terrain is Ideal for concealing guerrillas. Former Secretary of state Dean Acheson recognized the difficulties in 1950 when he wrote a if the Best minds of the world had set out to find us the worst possible location to fight a War the unanimous Choice would had to have been  for now the North and South Are technically still at War because no peace treaty Ever came after a 1953 cease fire. Soldiers peer across each other across a 2.5 mile wide demilitarized zone a jagged scar running across the country which went up eight years before the Berlin Wall and endures Long after the collapse of communism. And experts have Little doubt about the outcome of a second conflict. A the re d be a very bloody fight. But they a lose. It would be suicide Quot said Thomas Mcnaugher a military strategist. Quot it would t end again with the status  the associated press a . Army in Korea in 1953 the 25th inf div warned troops about the Quot main line of  wednesday june 29, 1994 the stars and stripes 17