North Korea Could Easily Target South Korea's Largest Airport

The heavily-trafficked airport that has the potential to be the site of a major military assault is far away from the ongoing turmoil in Israel, Syria, Iraq, or Ukraine.

Instead, the airport most susceptible to a rocket strike could be Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, South Korea.

Incheon is considered one of the best airports in the world. It won a 2014 Airport Service Quality Award from Airport Council International, its ninth win in as many years. The airport has a casino, a golf course, and a spa. It handled more than 41 million passengers in 2013.

With such a plethora of entertainment options, it is easy to forget that Incheon is located within striking range of the North Korean artillery pieces that ring the world's longest militarized border.

"If North Korea decided to start a war with the U.S., where most of its verbal threats are, it would strike Incheon," Steven Frischling, a blogger and aviation security analyst, told Business Insider. "Taking out Incheon and Gimpo [the second major South Korean airport] would be the first warning shot."

"North Korea can easily hit it," Frischling said. "They can easily target the airport far back from the DMZ."

If North Korea were to attack Incheon, South Korea could do little to protect the aircraft or passengers at the airport.

"None of the aircraft in Korean or Japanese airlines have any defenses. It wouldn't be surface-to-air missiles taking out the aircraft anyway; it would just be missiles and bombs taking out the airport," Frischling said.