Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

Korean Peninsula

With the withdraw of US Forces from South Korea, the Koreans were feeling a bit apprehensive. The North was starting to sabre rattle again. China had been gobbling up the entirety of Southeast Asia; it was only a matter of time until they decided to finish the Korean War. South Korea had to act (and act soon) if they were going to secure their future.

Young Hee Guen-hye had been President of South Korea for less than two years. In that time frame, she had directed the military to prepare for a pre-emptive military strike against North Korea. Knowing that China was going to make a move against Asia at some point, she wanted to make sure they could prevent Seoul from being destroyed in the opening hours of a war with the North. North Korea had positioned over 15,000 artillery pieces aimed directly at South Korea’s capital. If the artillery were not taken out in the opening hours of a conflict, then the city and the people that lived within it would suffer horrific casualties.

When the Americans had withdrawn, all 495,000 South Korean active and reserve troops had been called up and placed on ready alert along the entire border with North Korea. The South Korean Air Force was flying additional fighter aircraft over the country, and the Navy had moved most of their ships to sea. The nation was as ready for war as they were going to get.

Since South Korea did not possess nuclear weapons like the North, they developed a small stockpile of chemical and nerve agents, geared towards a specific type of offensive operation. The preemptive strike would involve South Korea hitting the entire North Korean lines with artillery shells and rockets filled VX-nerve gas and sarin. The goal was to overwhelm the defenders quickly with a chemical attack. While they were dealing with the initial shock of such an attack, the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) would begin to Napalm all known artillery and rocket positions, destroying the equipment. This would quickly be followed up by the ROK Army advancing in their own chemical suits across the frontlines and securing the enemy positions, removing the threat of the North’s artillery against Seoul.

This attack would require an immense amount of VX and Sarin gas to be used quickly. The ROK artillery barrage would last for five minutes before the Air Force would swoop in with their own payload. The ROK Air Force would also hit every known nuclear weapons site in an attempt to destroy the North’s ability to launch their nuclear missiles. This would be the largest chemical weapons attack since World War One, and President Young Hee Guen-hye hoped they would be able to destroy a large enough portion of the North’s army to get them to surrender quickly. It was a risky attack using chemical weapons; her hope was they could knock the North out of the war fast enough that they would not be able to use their nuclear weapons against the South.

After much deliberation and discussion, it was agreed that the attack would begin on December 26^th. This would give them 24 hours to get everything ready, and hopefully keep the North from finding out until it was too late. The longer they delayed in launching the attack once it had been agreed upon, the higher the likelihood of the plan being discovered.