Kim Jong Il's secret escape tunnels exposed
The North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has a vast network of underground tunnels linking Pyongyang with key locations across the country, according to a high level defector from within the regime.
Hwang Jang Yop, formerly North Korea's top political philosopher, spoke publicly about the existence of Mr Kim's tunnels for the first time this week, following his defection to South Korea in 1997.
Mr Hwang claims to have travelled through at least some of the North Korean dictator's tunnels, describing what he saw to Radio Free Asia:
“There was fresh water and grass growing within an underground tunnel that linked Pyongyang to a nearby mountain [...] In particular, an ultra-deep underground tunnel was built to connect one of Kim’s residences in Pyongyang to [the port city of] Nampo.”
Since being devastated by intense UN/American bombing raids during the 1950-53 Korean War, the North Korean government has hidden much of its military strength using vast underground military bases - which include missile silos, aircraft hangers and even naval ports - according to US military intelligence and the South Korean government.
Source: The Times
Posts
One thing you might consider is that many of these tunnels both in S Korea, and N Korea have been around since WWII when the Japanese used forced Korean labor to dig them. I lived in the town of Chinhae S Korea and explored many of these extensive tunnels. Whole islands in the bay were carved out for oil storage by the Japanese.
Perhaps they dug more since the Korean war especially on the border. But many of these tunnels have been around a long time.