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Network of ultra-deep tunnels built in Pyongyang: defector
By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has built a network of secret ultra-deep tunnels that can be used by its leader Kim Jong-il and senior officials as escape routes in times of emergency, according to a former senior North Korean official who defected to the South.
During a program on Free North Korea Radio, a Seoul-based anti-Pyongyang station, aired Monday, Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of the North's Workers' Party, claimed that there were secret tunnels built more than 300 meters below ground, linking Pyongyang with strategic locations within a radius of 40 to 50 kilometers.
Hwang, who fled to the South in 1997, is the highest-ranking defector from North Korea, having served as chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly and secretary of the powerful Workers' Party. It is reportedly the first time that he has publicly mentioned the existence of a network of ultra-deep underground tunnels in the North Korean capital.
Hwang, who claims to have personally traveled to the tunnels, said that the passages were connected with underground railway networks and were built to be used as escape routes and shelter for the country's leader and top officials in emergencies.
A subway system went into service in Pyongyang in 1973.
"There were fresh water and grass growing within a 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 Nampo (on the western coast)," Hwang said, noting that the North's leaders could escape to China by traveling through the tunnels.
The South Korean military believes that North Korea in the 1970s dug more than 20 tunnels to infiltrate the South, some of them across the military demarcation line.
According to the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, North Korea has some 8,000 underground military facilities, including hangars and missile bases, in its territory. Most of them are located about 80 meters underground, the South Korean state think tank said.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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