NORTH KOREA: What If... ...War Breaks Out In

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-- The opening barrage of Pyongyang's attack would be one of the largest in modern history. The North will not lack manpower to wage the initial onslaught. More than two-thirds of the 1.2 million-strong army are deployed within 60 miles of the DMZ, amply equipped with tanks, self-propelled artillery and armored personnel carriers to enhance their mobility. "Their heavy firepower, forward deployment and high state of combat readiness constitute a cocked gun pointed at South Korea," says Walter Slocombe, a top Pentagon official.

-- The fighting would be deadly. Nearly 90% of South Korean and U.S. regulars are positioned within 35 miles of the DMZ, in easy range of the North's huge assembly of artillery. U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry acknowledges that its weapons are larger and better than anything owned by Iraq's Saddam Hussein. They include hundreds of 240-mm rocket launchers and 170-mm Koksan guns, among the longest-range artillery weapons in the world. North Korea's 10,000 artillery pieces plus the rocket launchers can fire up to 20 million rounds of high explosives, fuel-air explosives and chemical weapons in a single day. Its 120 Soviet-designed Scud and FROG missiles could sustain an hour-long barrage.

-- The Allies would fight back hard. Their three long, thin lines of defense -- dubbed FEBA (Forward Edge of Battle Area) Alpha, Bravo and Charlie -- are a network of tank traps, fortifications and trenches that mark the front lines as they stood when the first Korean War ended in July 1953. Seoul, which is only 35 miles from the DMZ, has invested heavily in the lines, especially the Alpha line, which crosses the Munsan and Chorwan valleys -- where North Korea would probably push through. Since April, the U.S. has dispatched a battallion's worth of Patriot missiles to South Korea and replaced older Cobra helicopter gunships with new, more potent Apaches. Pentagon officials say all key ports and airfields are being fine-tuned for action. Fuel supplies and depots are being topped off at maximum capacity. The U.S. has withdrawn older iron bombs and replaced them with laser-guided weapons and other "smart bombs" of the kind that performed so well during the Gulf War. But efforts to persuade the South Koreans to redeploy some of their troops away from the DMZ have failed.

During the opening hours of battle, North Korea would have a pronounced edge. After the initial thrust across the DMZ, its forces would head south, with thousands of infantry streaming through the smoking gaps in the South Korean lines ahead of T-62 and T-55 tanks and armored personnel carriers. Commandos and vehicles would move through secret tunnels to sabotage Allied positions from the rear. Over the next days and weeks, North Korea would try to encircle Seoul and gobble up much of the rest of the peninsula before U.S. reinforcements would arrive.