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 In this March 30, 2015, file photo, a South Korean Marine, right, and U.S. Marines aim their weapons during joint military exercises. (Photo: AP) 
 
 LONDON — A distinguished retired South Korean general warned that a U.S. attack on North Korea would be met by well-armed soldiers fighting with religious fervor to defend their homeland. 
 
 "I try to explain to the Americans — if we have to go into North Korea, it is not going to be like going into Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s not going to be like toppling (ex-Iraqi President Saddam) Hussein. This would be more like trying to get rid of Allah," said I.-B. Chun, referring to the Arabic word for God. 
 
 Chun, speaking at a London think tank late Wednesday, said. "I said to my team: Can you imagine what that would look like? (North Korean leader) King Jong Un and his family is a cult in North Korea." 
 
 The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea since its founding in 1948. Its three leaders — first Kim Il Sung, then Kim Jong Il and now Kim Jong Un — have inspired an intense, devotional following that has kept them in power. 
 
 In her new book, North Korea: The Country We Love to Hate, political analyst Loretta Napoleoni described the isolated nation's ruling "juche" philosophy that values self-reliance and extreme nationalism "as a modern religion, similar to Scientology, a non-transcendental doctrine with a twist of absurdity and plenty of dogmas." 
 
 "I have had the opportunity to speak to North Korean soldiers who have defected to South Korea — and you cannot imagine how indoctrinated they are," Chun said. "These are people who have defected, and yet there is still an innate belief in their system which is close to ridiculous." 
 
 North Korea: Is There A Military Option To Counter The Threat? 
 
 Special guest speaker Lieutenant General (Ret.) I.-B. ChunFormer Commander, South Korea Special Warfare Command @Policy_Exchange 
 
 #PXKoreapic.twitter.com/cA2lQ7MgkW — Elliott Franks (@elliottfranks) January 10, 2018 
 
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 Chun, who retired 18 months ago after serving in South Korea's military for almost 40 years, rose as high as deputy commander of the First South Korean Army, a position that also involved leading the country's special forces. 
 
 According to Chun, who lives just 35 miles from the North's border, here are some of the challenges that allied forces would face in the event of war: 
 
 • The majority of the North's military infrastructure is deep underground, a reaction to the massive bombing by U.S. forces during the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with an armistice instead of a peace treaty. 
 
 • Every North Korean, starting at age 14, gets 100 hours of training each year on how to shoot a weapon, fire a rocket-propelled grenade, throw a grenade, pitch a tent and other survival skills. "North Korea is militarized far beyond the (West's) imagination," Chun said. 
 
 • While the North Korean air force is significantly outdated with about 1,000 old fighter jets, these planes would be used for kamikaze-style attacks instead of air combat. "They will load them with a lot of fuel, some bombs, and tell the pilot, 'That is your target and you need to destroy it,'" he said. 
 
 • The regime has chemical and biological weapons, which Chun estimates at between 2,500 and 5,000 tons. 
 
 • North Korea has artillery and rockets that directly threaten the South Korean capital Seoul, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world with a population of 25 million people. 
 
 • The North's military has 1.3 million active members and 7.7 million reserves. It has 200,000 special forces, whose official name translates as "monkey units," a reference, Chun said, to the "doped-up disrupting role they would play" in any conflict. 
 
 • In case of a foreign attack or invasion, North Koreans would stay loyal to Kim in the immediate term. "They have a system where five to 10 families are organized into a group, and if a single person from that group misbehaves, the entire five or 10 families go to the gulag or are executed. So everybody spies on everybody else. It is a great mechanism for keeping people under control," he said. 
 
 Chun was also a national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in while he was running for office. Chun first gained prominence in South Korea in 1983 as a young lieutenant when he was credited with saving the life of a senior South Korean general during a terrorist bombing in Burma. Later, he became one of the most senior contact points for U.S. military commanders in South Korea. 
 
 He gave his assessment of the threats facing Seoul and Washington amid reports, including in The Wall Street Journal, that despite an apparent easing in tensions after this week's talks between North and South Korea for the first time in two years, the Trump administration is still teetering between launching a pre-emptive strike on Pyongyang over its pursuit of nuclear weapons or holding out for diplomacy. 
 
 "A lot of good talks are going on — a lot of good energy. I like what I'm seeing," President Trump said Wednesday. North Korea agreed to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea and to hold military talks aimed at easing front-line animosities. 
 
 Still, Chun said Pyongyang was ready for war and was "one huge barracks." 
 
 He said North Korea's latest missile test in November indicated it has an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland, including Washington, D.C. 
 
 "But that’s assuming it only has a 150kg warhead," Chun said. "If it had a 500kg warhead — which is what we think it would need to have nuclear capability — it probably would not reach the capital. The North Koreans do not really have that capability, and this is where the window still exists for them to cease. If they want to broker a deal with the Americans, they need to do it now." 
 
 Chun said that over the course of his military career he became convinced "if you want peace, the only proven lesson is you must prepare for war. Yes, there is a military option for North Korea. But it’s like having a toothache and having to pull out all of your teeth. It should be the last option — and heaven forbid we have to use it." 
 
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 CLOSE North Korea agreed Tuesday to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea, Seoul officials said, as the bitter rivals sat for rare talks at the border to discuss how to cooperate in Olympics and improve their long-strained ties. Time_Sports 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2D18liw ||||| But North Korea said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons because they were aimed only at the United States and not its "brethren" in South Korea, or Russia or China, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough to the global crisis remained far off. Chun is also a former national security adviser to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in when he was running for office. He first gained prominence in 1983 when as a young lieutenant he was credited with saving the life of a senior general during a terrorist bombing in Burma. Later, he became one of the most senior contact points for US military commanders in South Korea. When asked by Fairfax Media if the first talks in two years signalled any material change, Chun said his 39 years of military experience had taught him that South Korea needed to be ready because often the only proven pathway to peace is war. "You must seek peace but at the same time prepare ourselves for the worst," he said. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have traded barbs recently, increasing tension between the two countries. Photo: AHN YOUNG-JOON 
 
 But he said he was confident that, despite North Korea's nuclear and chemical weapons and cyber warfare capabilities, the United States would prevail. "There is no doubt in any South Korean's mind that if there's war that the alliance will win and it's just the fact that the sheer air power that the Korean and the United States - with British aircraft - that will hopefully come to our aid, can inflict on the North Koreans," he said. Ministers from North and South Korea exchange a joint press release following their first high-level talks in over two years. Photo: YONHAP "It's North Korea against the world at the moment." He said US President Donald Trump's confrontational tweets, in which he has threatened military action against North Korea, had spooked the country's leader Kim Jong-un. 
 
 Conservative MP and chairman of the British Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat. Photo: Latika Bourke "Right now they're a little off balance because of Mr Trump, so because of Mr Trump they're trying to figure out is he really crazy? Is he really going to do this or not? Mr Trump has put them off balance," he said. "My greatest fear is that the North Koreans are believing their own propaganda." But he said Kim's provocations, including repeated missile tests, had "awoken the average American" and given "all justification to get his arse kicked". Kim Jong-un 'like Hitler' 
 
 Chan said Kim views himself as akin to the Swedish royal family and is not crazy but is similar in temperament to Adolf Hitler. He said the Kim dynasty had created such a cult in North Korea, where citizens are indoctrinated, that ridding the country of the family would be less like deposing the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and more like trying to remove Allah in Muslim countries. "Can you imagine what that would look like? Trying to get rid of Allah in Afghanistan or Iraq?" Australia, Britain and the US have all named North Korea as the culprit behind the global WannaCry cyber attack that crippled the British health system and infected 300,000 computers across the world. Chan said Pyongyang's ability to hack systems worldwide should not be underestimated. 
 
 "North Korean cyber capability is right below nuclear capability in terms of threat." China prefers nuclear North to US in Asia North Korea ramped up missile launches last year and conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, prompting a US-led campaign to impose some of the strongest international sanctions yet, which Pyongyang dubbed an "act of war". The international community, including Australia, has called on China to do more to contain North Korea. But Chan said Beijing had calculated that it would prefer a nuclear-armed North Korean neighbour than an increased US presence in its neighbourhood. 
 
 Conservative MP and chairman of the British Parliament's influential foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat​, said Britain, Australia and the rest of the Commonwealth had a great stake in the Korean peninsula, although he cautioned against any direct British role in "tipping the balance". Tugendhat singled out Australia's high commissioner to Britain, Alexander Downer who attended the speech. "It's very good to see you here representing the great Commonwealth," Tugendhat told Downer. "We have this enormous shared trade culture but we actually have a lot more than that too that's less noticed," he said, adding that Australia and Britain were major investors in South Korean enterprises. 
 
 But he said this was a secondary priority compared with Britain and Australia's interests in upholding the international rules-based order. Loading With agencies Follow Latika Bourke on Facebook ||||| SEOUL, South Korea — A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country's "desperate" dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies. 
 
 Thae Yong Ho is the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, meaning he is able to give a rare insight into the secretive, authoritarian regime. 
 
 According to Thae, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is "desperate in maintaining his rule by relying on his [development of] nuclear weapons and ICBM." He was using an acronym for intercontinental ballistic missiles — a long range rocket that in theory would be capable of hitting the U.S. 
 
 NBC Nightly News Exclusive: Lester Holt anchors from South Korea on Monday and Tuesday, April 3 and 4, at 6:30pm ET. 
 
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 "Once he sees that there is any kind of sign of a tank or an imminent threat from America, then he would use his nuclear weapons with ICBM," he added in an exclusive interview on Sunday. 
 
 Thae was living in London and serving as North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom when he and his family defected to South Korea and were announced to the world in August. 
 
 He was not directly involved in North Korea's weapons program but believes his country "has reached a very significant level of nuclear development." 
 
 North Korea is estimated to have upward of eight nuclear weapons but has not demonstrated the ability to attach them to a long-range rocket, an ICBM, capable of hitting the U.S. 
 
 “ Kim Jong Un is a man who can do anything beyond the normal imagination” 
 
 Analysts are unsure exactly how close the regime is to achieving this aim, but a senior official told NBC News in January that his government was ready to test-fire an ICMB "at any time, at any place." 
 
 Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told NBC News that American officials were particularly troubled by this latest threat. 
 
 "They have the nuclear capability — they've demonstrated that," he said. "And then, where they're going with the miniaturization of that, whether they can actually weaponize a missile, that's what's driving the current concern." 
 
 PHOTOS: The Tangled History of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un 
 
 Thae's interview with NBC News comes against a backdrop of rising tensions surrounding North Korea, which has significantly increased its missile and nuclear tests under Kim's rule. 
 
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 President Donald Trump told the Financial Times newspaper on Monday that "something had to be done" about North Korea. This came after Defense Secretary James Mattis said the country "has got to be stopped" and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said military action was "on the table." 
 
 "It does feel more dangerous — I'll give you three reasons," according to Adm. James Stavridis, an NBC News analyst and dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. "One is [Kim's] own precarious situation in command of the nation. Number two is the instability in South Korea. We've just seen the South Korean president indicted, arrested, and incarcerated." 
 
 "And, number three, a new and more aggressive American foreign policy coming from Washington," he added. 
 
 Lester Holt walks with North Korean defector Thae Yong Ho in Seoul. NBC News 
 
 Some analysts have warned that military action against the country might be very difficult and even disastrous. An invasion could risk a retaliatory strike against U.S. allies of Japan and South Korea, whose capital, Seoul, is just 50 miles from the border. 
 
 Nonetheless, Thae warned America and its allies to be prepared. 
 
 "If Kim Jong Un has nuclear weapons and ICBMs, he can do anything," he said. "So, I think the world should be ready to deal with this kind of person." 
 
 He added that "Kim Jong Un is a man who can do anything beyond the normal imagination" and that "the final and the real solution to the North Korean nuclear issue is to eliminate Kim Jong Un from the post." 
 
 Kim came to power in 2012 and has defined his strongman premiership by the pursuit of a nuclear weapon that can hit the U.S. He has conducted more missile tests than in the rest of the country's history combined, and three of North Korea's five nuclear tests came under his watch. 
 
 According to Thae, Kim is obsessed with obtaining nukes because he saw what happened to Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, both of whom abandoned their countries' weapons of mass destruction programs and then were overthrown by Western-backed forces. 
 
 “ Our freedom here is achieved at the cost of the sacrifice of my family members left in North Korea” 
 
 Many analysts agree that Kim sees a nuclear weapon — and the retaliatory threat it poses — as an insurance policy against a similar strategy being pursued against him. 
 
 "That's why Kim Jong Un strongly believes that only a nuclear weapon can guarantee his rule," Thae said. 
 
 According to the former diplomat, the world should look to Kim's past actions to see what he is capable of. The young leader has reportedly been responsible for purges and executions of top officials and even members of his own family. 
 
 Last month, according to U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials, he masterminded the assassination of his own half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, at an airport in Malaysia. 
 
 "Kim Jong Un is a person who did not even hesitate to kill his uncle and a few weeks ago, even his half-brother," Thae said. "So, he is a man who can do anything to remove [anyone in] his way." 
 
 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un attends a competition between tank units from the Korean People's Army this year. KCNA via AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Since his defection Thae has been making media appearances and giving talks denouncing North Korea's controlling and often brutal society. For this reason he believes he could be the next victim. 
 
 "I am already a marked man," he said. "Kim Jong Un wants to eliminate any person or any country which poses a threat to him. And I think I am really a great threat to him." 
 
 Thae was the highest-ranking North Korean official to abandon the regime and enter public life in South Korea since the 1997 defection of Hwang Jang Yop, who was responsible for crafting "Juche" — North Korea's state ideology, which blends elements of Marxism with ultra-nationalism. 
 
 He made the decision to switch sides, he said, after his two sons began asking questions about why North Korea did not allow the internet, why there was no proper legal system and why officials were executed without trial. 
 
 His sons also complained they were being mocked by their British friends. 
 
 "All of my family members were a little bit frightened, you know, on that day," he said of the moment he decided to escape. "But I always told them that we have to try to be as peaceful as possible. We should carry the normal faces and normal feelings so that our plan of defection should not be noticed by anyone in the embassy." 
 
 This came at a high price, however. He was able to escape with his wife and children — but he fears his brother and sister in North Korea have been punished for his actions. 
 
 "Our freedom here is achieved at the cost of the sacrifice of my family members left in North Korea," he said. "When a defection of my level happens, the North Korean regime usually sends the family members of high officials, defectors, to remote areas or labor camps and, to some extent, even to political prison camps as well." 
 
 This fate is not unique. More than 100,000 people are believed to have been detained in North Korea's notorious gulags, where they are subjected to forced labor, torture and executions — treatment the United Nations said was "strikingly similar" to the atrocities of Nazi Germany. 
 
 Families are taken away by the country's secret police for arbitrary crimes such as "gossiping" about the state. 
 
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 This is all part of the dictatorship's attempt to restrict information reaching North Korean families from the outside world. Most people cannot use the internet or access foreign media — Kim's attempt to maintain the pretense that his country is prosperous and the Western world is failing. 
 
 In all, North Korea "remains one of the most repressive states in the world," according to Human Rights Watch. 
 
 But according to Thae, the mask is slipping. More and more, North Koreans are able to watch South Korean films, giving them a true picture of their far more prosperous neighbor. 
 
 "I'm absolutely sure that once North Korean people are educated enough, then they may stand up," according to the former ambassador. "North Korean population now knows well that South Korea is democratic, the society and economy here are very well." 
 
 This, Thae said, "has already made the North Korean population not believe what the regime has been teaching and has been brainwashing them." 
 
 He added: "I think this is really a great change in people's mind, because they do not believe in the government's propaganda system." 
 
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 In this shift may even lie the seeds of fundamental change in North Korea, according to Thae. 
 
 "I think that is very important. And once the people do not believe in what the leadership is saying, then there is a great possibility for possible uprising: what happened in Soviet Union, what happened in communist system in Eastern Europe," he said. 
 
 "Because when the people in those Eastern European countries knew that the Western Europe were much better than Eastern Europe — the democratic society was much better than communist society and one-party system — all of a sudden people stood up against the system," he added. "These things could also happen in North Korea." 
 
 Thae said that he and other defectors can play a crucial part removing Kim. 
 
 "Every day I am living in order to accelerate the speed of my return home," he said. "I think defectors like me, we should all unite together to bring down Kim Jong Un's regime."
– For anyone encouraged by North Korea's slight softening toward the South, Chun In-bum essentially dumps a bucket of cold water it. The retired South Korean general, who the Financial Times reports led his country's special forces, spoke to a London-based think tank Wednesday and outlined exactly what American forces would encounter should we decide to bloody the country's nose—or something more significant. He doesn't mince words: "I try to explain to the Americans—if we have to go into North Korea, ... it’s not going to be like toppling [Saddam) Hussein]. This would be more like trying to get rid of Allah." He describes the country as "one huge barracks" and the population as militarized far beyond the [West's] imagination. "A 14-year-old child in North Korea probably gets more than 100 hours of military training a year," the Times of London quotes Chun as saying. "By age 14, a child knows how to fire an AK47, fire an RPG, throw a grenade, pitch a tent and march 24 hours." And even things that may seem promising on their face—the North's estimated 1,000 fighter jets are aged—aren't, per Chun, who says those planes would be used kamikaze-style, USA Today reports. And there's not just the physical battlefield to contend with, per the Brisbane Times: "North Korean cyber capability is right below nuclear capability in terms of threat," says Chun. He also describes an extreme system designed to root out any dissent, whereby the country's families are grouped in units, and if one person "misbehaves, the entire five or 10 families go to the gulag or are executed. So everybody spies on everybody else."