There was polite applause in the hall as Kim thanked his Ministers. The Defense Minister raised his hand. There is also news that our missiles struck an American battleship. Their news media has announced that one of the ships was struck three times while trying to protect one of their aircraft carriers. Their media reports that the ship is well; however, we have been told repeatedly by our allies that no ship could successfully survive more than two such hits. We feel it is a propaganda ploy to deceive the masses. So we also congratulate you on the sinking of one of the Americans’ capital ships.”
Once again, there was applause in the hall. Kim quieted the men. “Comrades, no one expects any war will be what the Americans call a cake walk. We must always expect there will be times when our forces will have troubles. However, we have one of the top armies in the world. We have rocket forces second to none and we are a nuclear power. No one can dare oppose us on our own soil. As you can see, when properly led, our forces can be victorious.” He pointed to his Defense Minister. “Thank you, Comrade.”
Again polite applause echoed around the stark walls of the hall and the Defense Minister bowed humbly. “Now comrade, please tell us of where we stand,” the Chairman said.
The Defense Minister began pointing to a chart and laid out the lines of advance as he spoke. “Our forces crossed in these two places. The second one was to regain access to some units in this general sector. The first was a direct thrust to the southeast to eventually take Yecheon. From there, we will consolidate and push almost straight south to Pusan. Once we are there, we will have divided their forces and can spread to both sides, driving them to the sea.”
“I have ordered that our submarine forces be sent out to attack the American ships patrolling our coasts and sink them. Without support from the sea, the Americans cannot hope to keep their troops supplied and they will be forced to either surrender or withdraw. Our missile forces are making daily attacks against their population and military assets. This will demoralize their citizens and because of their political weakness, should force their leadership to sue for peace. I have also ordered the camouflaging of our remaining nuclear missile ship so that it is not disturbed by air or surface attacks. We are even now looking at ways we can use these assets if it is deemed politically necessary. Our Chairman has ordered that our forces complete the task of taking Pusan in three weeks. Our forces are well on their way to attaining that goal,” recited the Defense Minister from a one way briefing he had received only one hour before by Kim himself. He was determined he would not go the way of previous ministers and would meet the goals set for him. The troops would have to show progress every single day or heads would roll. He nodded to the Chairman. “Thank you, Comrade Chairman.”
Kim stood again. “Comrades, every asset of the People’s Government must be tuned to achieving our military goals. The people demand victory and we shall give it to them,” he demanded. “I want daily reports from each of your offices on what you have done to achieve this goal,” he said.
The men broke out into applause again and began leaving the room. Kim stopped the Defense Minister. “You briefed them well, Comrade. Now tell me. Do you think we can do what you promised?”
The Defense Minister swallowed hard. The Chairman had trapped him into giving the brief and therefore taking the responsibility. He was not about to fall into another trap. “Comrade Chairman, it makes no difference what I think. These are things we must do. Our goals will be met, even if I have to use every soldier in the army to do it.”
Kim nodded. That was the attitude he was hoping to attain. “Good, Comrade. Now go see to this war and achieve our victory.”
Kim left the room almost strutting. The Defense Minister remembered the statistics he had been handed just before the meeting. The army had achieved its goals, but with the loss of over 75,000 men in the last twenty-four hours. The allied air power had decimated his men and materials. Even the border crossings had been terrible to watch. The last of the troops who could be pulled away from other duties had been sent to the front and would cross the border within the next twelve hours. What were left were only the troops on the border with China and the ones always on parade in the capital. He had even sent sailors and airmen who had been left with nothing to do when the airplanes and ships were gone. If these men could not get the job done, there was no hope left.
“The underground bunkers supplying their troops are here, here, and here,” said the briefer at the Pentagon war plans office. Seated in the small auditorium were each of the Joint Chiefs or their designees, their deputies and several operations directorate personnel along with the President and Chief of Staff. The briefer was pointing to a large-scale map of Korea on the wall. “With the help of the latest satellite, we were able to find these positions by watching the trucks move in and out.” He motioned for the lights and a slide to come up beside the map. “As you can see, all of these trucks are appearing from what looks like a garage beside this mountain. It is actually an access to this large underground facility.” An infrared image came up. “These enhanced photos of the general area show a different coloration covering a four mile area. We believe this is an underground food distribution warehouse.”
He pointed to the map again. “We found ammunition storage facilities here, here, and here. These are also underground. The missile launching sites were located last night when the second wave was launched. They center on this mountain area here,” he said pointing deep in the mountainous area of North Korea. “There are a number of underground centers that we have been able to find including a refinery, fuel storage, ammunition manufacturing, and arms manufacturing. There is also an aircraft factory in operation forty miles north of Pyongyang in this valley. Unfortunately, these are relatively deep underground. They are considered bomb proof and can be sealed off on a moment’s notice. We feel these targets must be neutralized as soon as possible,” the briefer concluded. With no questions, he sat down at the side of the room.
“OK, I agree we need to take these out. My question is, how do we do it?” the President asked. “We will not use nuclear devices again.”
General Foote stood. “Mister President, we won’t need to now. I have been working with Admiral Johnson and we may have a solution. It requires two C-130s to go to each of the sites and drop one guided weapon each. We are modifying the weapon to incorporate a FLIR-mounted guidance head and additional control surfaces. This bomb weighs in at about 21,000 pounds with an 18,000 pound payload. We hope that the appearance of just a couple of airplanes will not cause the enemy to close the doors to the underground facilities and we can get this weapon to fly into the tunnel leading into the facility. If so, I can guarantee the facility will be permanently shut down.”
“With an 18,000 pound payload, I guess so,” said the President. “Why something that big?”
“Our problem is they are deep, and conventional weapons and probably even nukes couldn’t get to them. The pattern we have seen over the past two nights is that they open the doors to deliver the goods every night once it’s dark. The trucks go in and out via two separate entrances. We have also noticed that there are about twenty ventilators that are used to provide air for the spaces. We have pinpointed those. So there are only two ways they are vulnerable. First when the doors are open and via those ventilators. We propose sending the C-130s in to drop its weapon at high level and then help guide it in. We are programming those weapons to fly into the tunnels and hopefully go deep enough to explode inside the facilities. Either these weapons will explode inside the main facility or they will detonate in the tunnel causing the tunnel to collapse. Either way we cut off the supplies from that facility. Then we send in B-2s with one Big BLU each. This weapon can penetrate 100 feet into the ground before exploding. This second weapon is to back up the first and cause more damage, if possible. Then we will send in carrier aircraft to hit those ventilators. If we can hit these, we should prevent the North from using the facility indefinitely. This will give us the time to finish the job.”