North Korea has an overwhelming edge over South Korea in terms of asymmetrical forces with more than 200,000 special warfare troops, according to South Korean government estimates released in recent days.
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said during his confirmation hearing on Friday that the North's asymmetrical forces such as strategical weapons, submarines and special warfare forces were increasingly becoming a "serious threat" to the South Korean military.
"An additional attack by the North using its asymmetrical strengths is the most serious threat as of now," Kim said.
The North is believed to have about 200,000 special warfare troops while South Korea has only 20,000, according to a recent report by the
ministry to the National Assembly.
The North is also believed to have some 150 missiles, about 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons agents and the capability of producing
five to eight nuclear weapons with 30 to 40 kilograms of plutonium in storage. The South, however, has only 50 missiles and no nuclear or
chemical weapons.
Due to its overwhelming inferiority, the South Korean military is depending on its combined forces with the United States to cope with the North's asymmetrical threats, the ministry said.
It also said the military has raised its alert status on cyber warfare readiness, called "Infocon," a notch from fifth to the fourth level,
facing growing cyber threats from the North following its artillery attack on a South Korean border island on Nov. 23.
Tension has increased since the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island near the tense border on the Yellow Sea killed two marines and two civilians.