North Korea's Military Threat: Pyongyang's Conventional Forces, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Ballistic Missiles

North Korea is a country of paradoxes and contradictions. Although it remains an economic basket case that cannot feed and cloth its own people, it nevertheless possesses one of the world's largest armed forces. Whether measured in terms of the total number of personnel in uniform, numbers of special operations soldiers, the size of it submarine fleet, quantity of ballistic missiles in its arsenal, or its substantial weapons of mass destruction programs, Pyongyang is a major military power. North Korea's latest act to demonstrate its might was the seismic event of October 9, 2006.The authors of this monograph set out to assess the capabilities and discern the intentions of North Korea's People's Army. This publication if the fourth in a series titled "Demystifying North Korea," the products of a project directed by Dr. Andrew Scobell.Published by the Strategic Studies Institute April 2007