Battlefield Korea

The Unthinkable

Lieutenant General Ghim was furious. The country was under attack, and there was little he could do to stop it. Several of their launch facilities had already been destroyed; now the Americans were hunting down his mobile launchers far more effectively than he believed possible. Within minutes of the first missiles and bombs hitting Pyongyang, he immediately ordered his mobile missile launchers to disperse. He had a brief call with the Supreme Leader, who ordered him to launch his missiles, but the connection was cut off before he could confirm the order. When he tried to call the command bunker back, the line was dead.

For the last three hours, General Ghim had been trying to get through to the military leadership to confirm his order and to find out if he should have the mobile launchers fire their missiles as well. Finally, he was able to reach one of the alternate command bunkers.

“The Supreme Leader has been injured and is currently in surgery,” explained the new Commander of the KPA.

“Should I launch my missiles, Sir?” asked General Ghim.

“Proceed with the launch. Hit the South Korean and American Army and Navy immediately,” came the order. Then the line went dead again.

He looked at the phone for a second, wondering if the line went dead because the bunker had just been destroyed, or if it was a problem on his end. All he knew was the Americans were bombing his country, and his fellow soldiers were dying by the thousands.

“I had better get our missiles airborne,” he realized. “They are the only thing that is going to equalize the situation. If at least one of our missiles can get through, then we may be able to destroy enough of the enemy army to allow our guys to hold the line.”

He turned to several of his officers. “Have the mobile missile crews launch their missiles at their assigned targets,” he instructed, matter-of-fact.

The officers began to contact the nearly two dozen missile crews that had managed to get set up and relayed their orders to them. The missile crews would fire their short and medium range ballistic missiles, which would rain down on the American naval battle group and several troop concentration points along the DMZ. Their hope was to destroy enough of the allied forces to keep them from penetrating the DMZ.

While his officers were handling the mobile launchers, General Ghim walked over to the terminal where the technicians who handled the launch of the Dongfeng 5B ICBM missiles were waiting. They looked at him with grave concern in their eyes about the health of the Dear Leader. Everyone revered Pak Lee like a deity, and to hear that he had been injured by an American bomb infuriated them.

“Begin fueling the missiles and prepare them to launch, ordered Ghim. “Wait until the last minute to open the launch door.”