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Re:New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-e... by pm90 on Thursday March 07, 2013 @09:09AM (#5337600)
The main reason is that the US essentially fought the Korean War for South Korea against the North, and still maintains many active military bases and thousands of troops in South Korea, especially one right in the middle of Seoul. Any attempt to invade the South would mean war with the US, thus one of the longstanding demands of the DPRK has been that the US remove all its troops from the country.

Also, the US helps the South Korea military (and previously, its economy). I believe there is a clause in the constitution where in the case of a full scale war, a US general will assume command of all the military forces of the South

Re:New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-e... by xhrpost on Thursday March 07, 2013 @09:20AM (#5337653)
Interesting. Here's a quick copy I found on Wikipedia: "A still functioning UN Command is technically the top of the chain of command of all forces in South Korea, including the US forces and the entire South Korean military – if a sudden escalation of war between North and South Korea were to occur the United States would assume control of the South Korean armed forces in all military and paramilitary moves. However, in September 2006, the Presidents of the United States and the Republic of Korea agreed that South Korea should assume the lead for its own defense. In early 2007, the U.S. Secretary of Defense and ROK Minister of National Defense determined that South Korea will assume wartime operational control of its forces on December 1, 2015. U.S. Forces Korea will transform into a new joint-warfighting command, provisionally described as Korea Command (KORCOM)."
Re:New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-e... by mseebach on Thursday March 07, 2013 @10:18AM (#5338041)
It's worth adding that while the conflict is complicated and the lead up was long, the North was basically the aggressor in the war and that the NK army was backed 5:1 by Soviet troops.