I wouldn't worry too much.
They were a whole month off on KJI's death date.
It flashes rather rapidly so it's kinda difficult to gauge.
Homefront has the economic collapse of America getting gradually worse. With a rapidly crashing oil economy backing it up. Eventually the US dollar becomes so weak that people flee to mexico. The basis for which has actually come up a couple times and has a slight historical basis. It's been inferred by some forward thinking conspiracy nuts that the whole "protect the borders" initiative is partially based on Berlin Wall ideology.
Korea beating Japan actually isn't that unlikely. The Korean military is (technically) larger than the Japanese military. With proper economic and technological backing they could pull it off. Large countries have been beaten by relatively small ones before. The proposal that it becomes a problem after losing US support would make sense. Sorta. It doesn't really factor in that there's other countries besides the US that may want to avert WWIII before it hits their shores whilst protecting a valuable ally. But this is fiction. If the country isn't involved in the plot, it doesn't exist.
Gas prices could easily skyrocket in the span of time shown provided that OPEC falls apart or suddenly gives way to a more serious issue. In this case, countries blowing their own stacks. The oil is a lot less useful for them than it would be for us. Moreso when it could potentially be a motivation for war. No oil, no supplies for the military, no reason to push for military action within their borders. In military circles it's known as the Scorched Earth Strategy.
Well, yes, technically, the DPRK army is fourth-largest in the world, behind China, the USA, and India, discounting reservists and paramilitary forces (including them completely skews the rankings, putting Russia in first, the ROK in second, and the DPRK in third, with the USA sitting comfortably at 8th). It is completely unlikely, for the very simple reason that they have no power projection capability whatsoever outside of the immediate area. Their ability to invade their southern neighbor, even without any outside intervention, is ridiculously low, and the only reason they are treated with respect is because the second-largest metropolitan area by population in the entire world happens to be sitting in range of a truly tremendous number of fixed artillery emplacements dating back to the first Korean War. Turns out that being able to hold a quarter of the population of a nation hostage at will is pretty good for getting diplomatic concessions, but it really shouldn't be taken as any sort of military advantage. For comparison, Saddam Hussein, in the 1991 Gulf War, was fielding T-69s and T-72s, and was completely shredded. The North Koreans have primarily the dated T-59s and T-62s, with the Ch'onma-ho and P'okp'ung-ho largely restricted to their most elite (read: reliable) forces due to severe production bottlenecks. Their Air Force is geared entirely towards defensive operations, with fighter-heavy focuses, but fear of defections by the pilots keeps training ridiculously poor since most pilots aren't allowed to fly their planes nearly as much as their counterparts in almost any other nation. Their Navy is even worse, being the lowest-priority branch of the three, and is trapped by their geographic situation into defending two divergent threat vectors that cannot see mutual support. Envisioned purely in a green-water defensive capacity, it operates primarily light patrol craft, amphibious cutters, and light submarines incapable of operating beyond the 50-kilometre exclusion zone, with an estimated three cruisers being the heaviest hitters, and includes in these numbers obsolescent vessels predating World War 2. In other words, the Japanese Maritime SDF operates more helicopter carriers than the People's Navy has cruisers, and they're restricted by Article 9. The ROK Navy, which would not stand idly by in any such engagement, is also transitioning from a littoral defense to a blue-water role, including the new Yi Sunshin, Kwanggaeto, and Sejong destroyers (cruisers being generally unused in modern navies, with only the US, Peru, and Russia still confirmed to be operating them).
So, I suppose, if they had an infinite R&D apparatus with the freedom and liberty of thought to produce new matériel with a willingness to accept overturning the schools of thought followed by the military that actually runs the whole country, an infinite production capacity to implement the fruits of that R&D, complete idiocy on the part of all of their neighbors, the dismantling of their opponents armed forces, and so forth, they might be able to pull off a Homefront situation. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious that Homefront was hastily rewritten at with a search-replace on all instances of "China" with "Korea" to keep the Chinese market open. Seriously; the ROK armed forces alone can take on the DPRK, even if America were to withdraw all of their forces tomorrow.
Last edited by Mistral; 24th-December-2011 at 00:39.
There's also the issue that they sort of can't invade. They survive off the food donations of other countries, that goes out the window with one bad move. Right now I believe they're begging the US to send food since they recently delayed a food donation I believe over Kim Jong Il's death.
All military personnel weeping on state-sponsored only media aside, I re-watched Team America to commemorate his passing.
I'm sure most of the non-military citizens of the country are secretly celebrating, hoping they can actually get enough to eat now.
He was a horrible human being, and deserves no pity about his fate. Let's hope China can strong-arm their new leader into revising the country's diplomatic policies. I wouldn't want to be living in South Korea right about now either...
Tyrants are sociopathic losers with huge egos and tiny peen0rz.
Which makes one wonder...why would anyone want to be a tyrant?
Hopefully his son who succeeded him as Supreme Muckety-Muck For Life is less of a scumbag.
Guess time will tell.