This is a common misconception. 1) Artillery isn't actually that good at 'clobbering' a city. 2) North Korea doesn't have THAT much artillery, and even less of

This is a common misconception. 1) Artillery isn't actually that good at 'clobbering' a city. 2) North Korea doesn't have THAT much artillery, and even less of it is working, nor do they have the supply lines to keep them constantly resupplied 3) Seoul has quite a bit in the way of bomb shelters Seoul has has 10 million people in it, and most experts think that at most 30k or so would die if NK was able to shell them. That's certainly(!) nothing to scoff at, but it's not really being clobbered. The media likes to portray it as NK being able to completely level Seoul, which just isn't reality. http://atlanticsentinel.com/2012/06/north-korea-cant-really-turn-seoul-into-a-sea-of-fire/ http://atlanticsentinel.com/2012/06/north-korea-cant-really-... is a pretty good article on this.