South Korea worries about Hamas-style strike from the North
Ever since Hamas launched its brutal cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October, South Korean politicians and defence chiefs have invoked comparisons between that and what Pyongyang might do to the South.
Last month, the Chair of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff also said that if Pyongyang were to wage war on the South in the future, there was evidence to suggest "it could follow a similar pattern to the Hamas invasion".
But is South Korea really at risk of a similar attack? Or has the conflict merely given its hawkish government a reason to beef up its defences and get tougher on North Korea?
Hamas's assault on Israel, where rockets were fired into its territory as guerrilla fighters invaded, is a prime example of what is known as hybrid warfare. Ryu Sung-yeop, a research fellow at the 21st Century Military Studies Institute, noted that this is something North Korea has traditionally been very good at, adding that if it were to engage in a hybrid war, Seoul would suffer.
While Hamas fired 5,000 rockets into Israel in the early hours of 7 October, Pyongyang's artillery could fire an estimated 16,000 rounds an hour. To combat the threat, Seoul is developing its missile defence system, similar to Israel's Iron Dome.
And just like what Hamas has done in Gaza, the North is also thought to have built a network of underground tunnels, some running under the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which could be stocked with weapons and used in a potential invasion.
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