Some Korean war vets are still alive. The relevant thing here is they have a lot of (probably very crappy) shells.

They are the country with the most military and paramilitary personnel in the world at 7,769,000 so worst case scenario they can help prolong a war at a pace that would be hard to maintain for any Western power, and the ones who are next in the list, except South Korea, aren’t friends with the West, too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel