A fire assault drill by North Korean rocket artillery units at an undisclosed location in North Korea in March 2023 in this photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Around 6,000 of these units are located in range of South Korean population centers.KCNA | ReutersNorth Korea’s missile launches in the past month have ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula —but that’s not the only threat the reclusive state poses.While North Korea’s ballistic missile launches are the ones that grab headlines, the threat of conventional artillery strikes should not be ignored, warned Naoko Aoki, associate political scientist with the Rand Corporation.North Korea boasts the world’s fourth largest armed forces, according to the Council of Foreign Relations. In late 2022, CFR estimated North Korea had 1.3 million active military personnel, in addition to a 600,000 strong res …
