North Korea conventional arms. I Love this infograph!

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/10/graphic-north-koreas-conventional-arms/

Not a wonder the North Korean civilian population is starving.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ub...ent#Post3769278

Already posted.

Ahh sorry, I did not want to steal your post, but I keep myself far away from PWEC usually.

Is there an equivalent visual representation anywhere of other armed forces? I'd be fascinated to see how that stacks up against the US and UK forces comparatively. Not so much as a comparison of combat ability, but the simple numbers intrigue me.

Well, this site has simple numbers:

http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison.asp

seems to be quite a turkey shoot for UK/US forces

For all its supposed numerical strength I wonder how many of those ships, MBTs etc... are actually in a state of good repair. The capital outlay for weapons is significant but relatively insignificant compared to the cost of maintaining them. I doubt many of the Beagles or Mig-17s or even the Floggers are in any state of serviceability.

In the event of a conflict I think the main concern would be the artillery batteries aimed at Seoul. Once that threat and the nukes likely aimed at Japan/SK are neutralized, I doubt the North Koreans would have any offensive ability at all.

I don't think the North would be able to hold up long if the Chinese decided their pet was more pain than it's worth to them and the US + SK began a ground offensive. Air superiority would likely be established early on and it would simply be a matter of locating any concentration of defensive forces opposing an allied attack.

Their huge advantage in manpower isn't mechanized, either. They're leg infantry. In the first hours of the attack, they are going to be filled with piss n' vinegar, which will peter out when they have to hump it under fire all the way to Seoul.

Still, the North is neither crazy nor stupid, and they are pretty adept with using conventional forces in a way that suits asymmetrical warfare. They know what they lack in modern equipment they will make up for by throwing curve balls at you. They maintain one of the world's largest special forces branches which incorporates that philosophy. They'll of course infiltrate those guys, some of them probably sleeper agents already in South Korea or in Japan. Then it will be interesting to see if they have any undiscovered tunnels they can move tanks and equipment through. Then as you say, the artillery and rocket forces will serve more as terror/spoiler weapons to thrash targets in South Korea and perhaps Japan rather than to win the war alone militarily.

If there was a similar infographic for US hardware, we'd probably all wear out our mouse-wheels trying to scroll through it.

Numerically the numbers might be quite similar, but as Cold_Gambler said, assuming that owning an aircraft or ship and equating it to being fully functional is pretty inaccurate.

They did manage to sink a ROK warship, there have been a few naval battles over the years, so they are capable of fighting, it seems. To what extent and how long may not matter in the type of war that they might fight or one that will be relatively short but very violent at the same time.