Can you imagine those pilots with their old MiG-15's in a meeting engagement with an F-22?
http://theaviationist.com/2014/11/28/kim-jong-un-mig-15-female/
Having spoken to an ex RAAF pilot, who has been to China and seen the MIG copies in person, they're serviceable aircraft. The Chinese were flying them until the early 90s as lead in fighters and they still use them as trainers so is plenty of parts, although they're harder to come by in North Korea leading to some degree of cannibalism. The biggest problem the Koreans have among many others is the lack of fuel supply into the country meaning that they're mostly grounded due to not being able to get fuel into them.
I doubt very much that the US has any interest in directly engaging with North Korea, particularly when its a nuclear armed state with enough mid range ballistic missiles they can shoot in the general direction of South Korea or Japan. They've also proven to have some kind of crude capability to launch ICMBS although I'm not sure what their radar and tracking capabilities are like or whether they could land one at all directed at any particular target.
The ratchet really should be something left for Russia, China, South Korea and Japan, to sort out with what to do with North Korea, although its gone on for this long I doubt honestly that South Korea wants anything to do with North Korea, it's really nothing like trying to reunify East and West Germany at the end of the 1980s, the North Koreans are far too backwards for that, that it would cause all kinds of chaos to the South Korean economy if any such thing was ever attempted.
This is going to be a protracted stalemate for a long while yet that nobody really wants to touch anyway, and where shows of force all be it meager ones simply mean more food on the table for North Koreans, events like these are generally part of negotiations for more food aid.
You put an F-22 on our doorstep we'll buzz a few Mig-15s around or maybe blow up another bomb, hurr durr continuum as always in North Korea. No doubt if I looked hard enough I could probably find something regarding the matter on the
KCNA website such as this article:
Rodong Sinmun Warns Japan of Its Catastrophic Fate
Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- Recently, the U.S. officially clarified the stand that its forces in Japan would automatically get involved in contingency on the Korean Peninsula without prior consultation with the latter, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a commentary.
The real purpose of this announcement timed to coincide with the hideous anti-DPRK "human right" racket kicked up by the U.S. at the UN is to launch invasion of the DPRK and the second Korean war, the commentary notes, and goes on:
The DPRK is left with no option but to clarify its resolute stand as the U.S. openly declared the stand-off of force while revealing its ambition to stifle the former by force of arms.
It is the stand of the DPRK to react to the U.S. provocation of the war with operations for blowing up the bases for its aggression.
It will remain unfazed though the U.S. mobilizes its forces in Japan, Guam and Hawaii and even from its mainland.
Through the above-said announcement the U.S. clearly projected its relations with Japan and the role to be played by the U.S. forces in Japan.
The relations between the U.S. and Japan are those between the master and his servant from A to Z.
The U.S. is praising Japan as its "ally" but this is just talking. Its ulterior aim is to use the Japanese territory as a forward base and nuclear advanced base for invading Korea and Asia and "Self-Defense Forces" as cannon fodder.
Sometimes Japan is calling for "independence" which is hardly achievable.
Japan had better bear in mind that the escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula would put its destiny on a chopping board. Acting without any principle would only invite a catastrophic fate.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201411/2014-11-30ee.html
How do I know about all this stuff?? Pointless amounts of time spent studying North East Asian security and International Relations at university. If you take out the satire you can actually use the KCNA website to gain a limited understanding of the way the North Korean government is projecting its thoughts. It's a bit like reading RT, though obviously RT is a lot better than this, you take it all in perspective and with a heavy dose of salt.
