North Korean military engineers are completing an underground runway beneath a
mountain that can protect fighter aircraft from attack until they take off
at high speed through the mouth of a tunnel.
The 6,000ft runway is a few minutes’ flying time from the tense front line
where the Korean People’s Army faces soldiers from the United States and
South Korea.
The project was identified by an air force defector from North Korea and
captured on a satellite image by Google Earth, according to reports in the
South Korean press last week.
It is one of three underground fighter bases among an elaborate subterranean
military infrastructure built to withstand a “shock and awe” assault in the
first moments of a war, the defector said.
The runway, reminiscent of the Thunderbirds television series, highlights the
strange and secretive nature of the regime that provided the expertise for a
partially built nuclear reactor in Syria, film of which was released by the
CIA last week.
The reactor was destroyed by Israeli aircraft last September in an operation
that may have killed or injured North Koreans at the site in the remote
deserts of eastern Syria.
The airstrike appears to have convinced North Korea to harden its own defences
and to spend more on its military, even as it struggles to cope with a new
food shortage that could see millions of its citizens go hungry. In recent
days North Korea has ordered its people to be vigilant against “warmongers”.
“The prevailing situation requires the whole party and army and all the people
to get fully prepared to go into action,” North Korea’s state media said on
Friday.
Although the media unleashed a volley of abuse against the United States and
Lee Myungbak, South Korea’s conservative new president, it also said
“sincere and constructive” negotiations on nuclear disarmament were in
progress, an apparent effort to play off hawks against doves in Washington.
Some diplomats, who are sceptical of the process, say that behind the
rhetoric, Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, may sense that he is a
hair’s breadth away from a deal that would leave him with up to 10 nuclear
weapons and a security guarantee for his regime.
In Washington, nuclear experts were puzzled by the timing and quality of the
evidence released by the Bush administration. Democrats suggested hardliners
around Dick Cheney, the vice-president, had forced the issue to try to wreck
the talks with Kim.
However, there is a more persuasive argument. Analysts in Seoul see the
American disclosures as a sly way to keep the negotiations alive. Kim had
refused to make a “full declaration” of his nuclear programme by a December
31 deadline; now, in effect, the CIA has done it for him. “The revelation
was a highly orchestrated one,” commented The Korea Herald, adding that it
“enabled” Pyongyang to “make its declaration without losing face”.
One indication is that Christopher Hill, the US State Department negotiator,
flew to Singapore for an unusual session with his North Korean counterparts
shortly before the United States went public. “There must have been some
sort of secret agreement or deal,” said Taewoo Kim, of the Korea Institute
for Defence Analyses in Seoul.
Last year Hill persuaded the White House that the talks offered a realistic
chance to accomplish a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-3 Korean war,
in which more than 50,000 Americans died. His critics, such as John Bolton,
the former United Nations ambassador, say North Korea has a long recidivist
history of selling missiles and unconventional weapons to unstable Middle
Eastern regimes such as Syria, Iran and Libya.
Whatever the truth, even by the standards of North Korean politics the atomic
intrigue half a world away – with its multinational cast of spies,
scientists, diplomats and airmen – makes an exotic story.
The alliance between the two clan dictatorships in Damascus and Pyongyang is
more than 35 years old. In another tunnel, this one under Mount Myohang, the
North Koreans have kept as a museum piece the Kalashnikov assault rifle and
pistols sent as gifts from President Hafez al-Assad of Syria to Kim Il-sung
in the early years of their friendship.
Today North Korea and Syria are ruled by the sons of their 20th-century
dictators – Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000 and Kim Jong-il
took over in 1994. They inherited a hatred of America and a fondness for
authoritarian family rule.
Syria possesses the biggest missile arsenal and the largest stockpile of
chemical weapons in the Middle East, built up over the past two decades with
arms bought from North Korea.
North Korea, which detonated a nuclear device in October 2006, has become
pivotal to Syria’s plans to enhance and upgrade its weapons.
Syria’s liquid-fuelled Scud-C missiles depend on “essential foreign aid and
assistance, primarily from North Korean entities”, said the CIA in a report
to the US Congress in 2004.
Diplomats based in Pyongyang have said they now believe reports that about a
dozen Syrian technicians were killed in an explosion and train crash at
Ryongchon, North Korea, on April 22, 2004. North Korea blamed a technical
mishap, but there were rumours of an assassination attempt on Kim, whose
special train had passed through the station en route to China some hours
earlier.
No independently verified cause of the disaster was made known. However, teams
of military personnel wearing protective suits were seen removing debris
from the section of the train in which the Syrians were travelling,
according to a detailed report quoting military sources which appeared on
May 7, 2004, in the Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper.
The technicians were said to be from Syria’s Centre D’Etudes et de Recherche
Scientifique, a body known to be engaged in military technology.
Their bodies were flown home by a Syrian military cargo aircraft which was
spotted on May 1, 2004 at Pyongyang. There was speculation among military
attachés that the Syrians were transporting unconventional weapons, the
paper said at the time. Diplomats said the Sankei Shimbun report was now
believed to be accurate.
Last year Jane’s Defence Weekly reported that dozens of Iranian engineers and
Syrians were killed on July 23 attempting to load a chemical warhead
containing the nerve gases VX and sarin onto a Scud missile at a plant in
Syria.
The Scuds and warheads are of North Korean design and possibly manufacture.
Some analysts think North Korean scientists were helping the Syrians to
attach air-burst chemical warheads to the missiles.
Syria possesses more than 100 Scud-C and ScudD missiles which it bought from
North Korea in the past 15 years. In the 1990s it added cluster warheads to
the Scud-Cs that experts believe are intended for chemical weapons.
Like North Korea, Syria has an extensive chemical weapons programme including
sarin, VX and mustard gas, according to researchers at the Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute in California.
The Scud-C is strategically worrying to Israel because Syria has deployed it
with one launcher for every two missiles. The normal ratio is one to 10. The
conclusion: Syria’s missiles are set up for a devastating first strike.
Since 2004 there have been a series of leaks designed to suggest that Syria
has renewed its interest in atomic weapons, a claim denied by Damascus.
In December 2006 the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Siyasa, quoted European
intelligence sources in Brussels as saying that Syria was engaged in an
advanced nuclear programme in its northeastern Hasakah province.
It also quoted British security sources as identifying the man heading the
programme as Major Maher Assad, brother of the president and commander of
the Republican Guard.
Early last year foreign diplomats had noticed an increase in political and
military visits between Syria and North Korea. They received reports of
Syrian passengers on flights from Beijing to Pyongyang, almost the only air
route into the country. They also spotted Middle Eastern businessmen using
trains between North Korea and the industrial cities of northeast China.
Then there were clues in the official media. On August 14 Rim Kyongman, the
North Korean minister of foreign trade, was in Syria to sign a protocol on
“cooperation in trade and science and technology”. His delegation held the
fifth meeting of a “joint economic committee” with its Syrian counterpart.
No details were disclosed.
Initially, the conclusion of diplomats was that the deal involved North Korean
ballistic missiles, maintenance for the existing Syrian arsenal and
engineering expertise for building silos and bunkers against air attack. Now
it is known that Israeli intelligence interpreted the meeting as the last
piece in a nuclear jigsaw; a conclusion that Israel shared with President
George W Bush.
For years the United States and Israel saw North Korean weapons sales to the
Middle East as purely a source of revenue – apart from seafood, minerals and
timber, North Korea is impoverished and has little else to sell. The nuclear
threat in Syria was also believed to be dormant, as Damascus appeared to
rely on a chemical first-strike as an unconventional deterrent.
In a period of detente, the United States and its allies concurred when China
sold a 30kw nuclear reactor to Syria in 1998 under international controls.
Then, in 2003, American intelligence officials believe that Syria recruited
Iraqi scientists who had fled after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Like other
countries in the region, Syria renewed its pursuit of nuclear research.
The calculus changed for good after North Korea tested a nuclear bomb in 2006
and admitted to a plutonium stockpile sufficient for 10 more.
The danger to Israel is multiplied by the triangular relationship between
North Korea, Syria and Iran. Syria has served as a conduit for the transport
to Iran of an estimated £50m of missile components and technology sent by
sea from North Korea to the Syrian port of Tartous, diplomats said.
They say Damascus and Tehran have set up a £125m joint venture to build
missiles in Syria with North Korean and Chinese technical help. North Korean
military engineers have worked on hardened silos and tunnels for the project
near the cities of Hama and Aleppo.
Israel also noted reports from Pyongyang that Syrian and Iranian observers
were present at missile test firings by the North Korean military last
summer and were given valuable experimental data. Israeli sources said last
week that Iran was informed “in every detail” about the nuclear reactor and
had sent technicians to the site.
Such was the background against which Israel took its decision to strike. Two
signals from the North Koreans in the aftermath showed that the bombs hit
home.
On September 10, four days after the raid, Kim sent a personal message of
congratulations to Assad on the Syrian dictator’s 42nd birthday.
“The excellent friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries
are steadily growing stronger even under the complicated international
situation,” Kim said.
The next day, in a message that went largely unnoticed, the North Koreans
condemned the Israeli action as “illegal” and “a very dangerous provocation”.
Just days later a top Syrian official, Saeed Elias Daoud, director of the
ruling Syrian Arab Ba’ath party, boarded a Russian-made vintage jet
belonging to the North Korean airline, Air Koryo, for the short flight from
Beijing.
Daoud brought counsel and sympathy from Assad, whose father Hafez was famed as
a strategic gambler with a talent for brinkmanship.
Now Kim is waiting to see if his own gamble has paid off.
Additional reporting: Sarah Baxter in Washington
The USA did not win WW2, they just sped up the process. Before the US declared war, Britain was pushing back the Axis in N. Africa already and the Russians were holding their ground. Britain and France would have invaded Italy, which then would forced Mussolini to surrender leaving Germany isolated.
George, Chester, UK
Hey John from Winnipeg, exactly what resources is the US stealing from Afghanistan? I won't argue that the US is a resource hungry country, but I think you show your shortsightedness by ignoring the fact that Canada is currently in Afghanistan. I salute your Canadian troops, but shame on YOU.
Sean, Davenport, USA
The US did not win WWII by itself, but it sure helped. Don't forget the millions of tons of cargo that crossed to Europe in the years before the US sent troops to Europe. And please don't think we are of one voice - there are many people in the US who do not agree with our foreign policy.
Adam, Philly, USA
America joined the war in Europe only after Germany had declared war on it at the end of 1941. Notwithstanding the colossal individual sacrifices made by the US servicemen and women, as a nation the US was in it for self interest not altruism.
David Masu, Zürich,
I find it funny, how all you americans feel that you"saved" the world, or are saving the world, when all present wars have been fabricated and executed under totoal lies. And all the people murdered by your unjust and immoral wars, for nothing else than stealing resources. Shame on americans
John, winnipeg, Canada
Now as far as smart bombs go don't you need to see the target to guide it in by lazer? Seems to me the arm chair warriors think its a video game.Try to remember in Iraq in 1991 we used dummy bomb's dropped from 5000 feet out of range of their out dated AA guns.Try researching N Korea's def strategy.
cuda, Dane, U.S.A.
So Team America was based on fact?! Well I never...
Thom James, Auckland, NZ
@Chris in Glasgow - But the vast majority of Russia's 22 million killed were 'own goals'!
Scabeng, Jozi, RSA
' ...how an plane is supposed to land in an underground airfield. I can sort of see taking off, but landing'
Daniel N. White, Austin Texas, USA
Good point! Perhaps the planes will be unmanned (kamikazi) drones - and all fitted with nuclear bombs...
Jean, Voorburg, Neths.
Jason. Get your facts right. Stalinism killed 80 mio Russians. WW2 killed another 20 mio, 2 mio at Stalingrad alone.
As for the rest of your comment, it stands as an affront to every man woman and child who lost their lives in Europe and does nothing to honour the memory of your own servicemen.
Richard Crow, Warsaw, Poland
This nothing new, when I was in S Korea about 10 years ago
next to the DMZ.
The locals were telling me about these mountains with air bases inside and also about the tunnels the N Koreans were building under the DMZ so that their forces could break out and invade SK
plato, ely, uk
A hit a day keeps the Iranians,Koreans and Syrians at bay.
The article makes sense,these countries are dangerous.
It is going to take more than this article to convince people
that the world is in danger,not just Israel.
David Nigel Braham, Milan, Italy
@Chris in Glasgow,
400,000 Americans who got on ships and planes and went thousands of miles away to a place where they didn't speak the language and didn't know a soul, and lost their young lives on foreign soil?
I'm rather impressed.
Joan, Oceanside, USA
does anyone remember the mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan? it was supposed to fully hi tech equiped etc in 2001 and justified the strike on the rogue taliban after 09-11.
The Pentagon and Cheney-Bush seem to share the same motto: it s never to big to be unbelievable
greg, Beijing,
The question is so what?? Even if this article is true. The North Koreans have an airforce…right…no big shock….they don’t want their planes destroyed…right….they are looking for places to cover the planes from detection…right…in a mountain..OK so what?..The US has huge underground facilities
Javier, Sydney, Australia
Stories of underground/buried in mountainside airfields have been around for a long time. They were bruited about Cuba several times, once by Barry Goldwater. Thing I've always wondered about is how an plane is supposed to land in an underground airfield. I can sort of see taking off, but landing
Daniel N. White, Austin Texas, USA
I wonder if it is coincidence that Syria and North Korea are building up their forces just now. Both Israel and South Korea rely, ultimately, on US protection and Clinton & Obama have shown they have no stomach for a fight, in Iraq or anywhere else.
Pauline Renton, Camberley, UK
More lunatic Bush/Cheney nonsense. But don't worry, Americans will buy it and elect McCain. Plus ca change!
Brad, Bangkok, Thailand
@ Jason. I do love it when you Americans get all excited about WW2. We fought for years and years before you got off your backsides and joined in. Saying that Europeans (by that including the British) had no guts to fight is a very very poorly judged comment.
Matt, Bristol, UK
The decision was made by the central bankers in 1946 to build up the nuclear arsenal to insure that the human race would be destroyed in an all out nuclear holocaust.
That game is still in play.
We are the LIVING DEAD.
You ask; "Well then; why are we still here?
Somebody up there must love us
Patrick Sullivan, Des Moines, USA
Underground runways count for nothing. One bomb at the mouth of that tunnel and all those planes are useless.
Bobin, Lushka,
yes. Bush already told me this, but you guys called him a liar
JJ, Sacramento, CA
Jason, When Operation Overlord was launched, the war was already over, Germany had lost, the western assault just made it end faster.
Anyway, back on topic, i would really love to land at one of these bases, must be a thrill like no other.
law, edinburgh, UK
Might i also add that the device exploded by N.Korea was not a fully functioning warhead. The blast was significantly smaller than it should have been.
law, edinburgh, UK
Chris:
A few things you aren't considering. Firstly, many of those killed in the Soviet Union were killed by the backwards dictatorship that ran it and the tactics used. Also, the US DID save Europe in WW2....from the SOVIETS! You should kiss our feet every day. Europe had/has no guts to fight
Jason, Elizabeth, USA
The story is about North Korea. Why are we talking about how many died in WW2? Blood for oil? Why is our gas so high then? We came across the pond as friends to help. Dont dishonor our fathers. Yet now we are a "murderous regime"? i guess the Swiss can live well on the Nazi gold they kept too.
William , Atlanta, USA
Yawn. The Bush administration cooks up more and more stuff every day to frighten people and get its own way. Iran, Syria, North Korea = Bush's imaginary "axis of evil". It was all propaganda last time round. All for the fantasy of "bestriding the earth like a giant" = Bush's omnipotence fantasy.
Julia Iskandar, London, England
I ask myself whether or not we're heading for another world war...and I frighteningly feel that we are. Why? Because as a world, we're evolving at different speeds and are thus at different points in time.
God will be the excuse used by some, mankinds biggest and ultimate mistake.
The end!!!!!
David Downes, Chester, UK
There is a very effective new weapon in the Wests arsenal. The West has pleanty of it and all it's potential enemies would like to aquire it. It's called food.
Mr G, Leeds, UK
Ron Moore. Swiss-German is a dialect of standard German. While it is true that most Germans do not understand Swiss German, the reverse is not true; all Swiss-German speakers not only understand standard German but use it to write. Learning standard German in school is mandatory along with French.
Richard Crow, Warsaw, Poland
RE: Ron Moore
It's a popular misconception that the USA saved Europe from the Germans in WW2. Consider the following:
80% of all German casualties were suffered against the Soviet Union
USA suffered 400,000 casualties in the war, compared to UK, 500,000 France 600,000 and Soviets 22MILLION
Chris, Glasgow, UK
In Switzerland they speak Swiss German which would be generally incomprehensible to most Germans. So the original poster was correct a) in that the Swiss don't speak German and b) that the US Army saved the Swiss and the rest of Europe from having to speak German. You're welcome by the way.
Ron Moore, NY, USA
Can you see the initial provocations for major war?
All the nations are getting on edge.
The West needs to gear up.
In Australia we siesta when there should be build-up.
The British government needs to analyse and give travel warnings especially to asia and sth east asia.
No olympics.
G. Gibson, Sydney, Australia
The propoganda is so preposterous I'm starting to feel sorry for that horrible Kim Jong-il.
This is zero threat since one missile will close the alleged tunnel.
It wouldn't even have to be a bunker buster. The mouth would be big enough to fly ordinary missiles into.
Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada
I think NK people are worried about the bombs from US fighter jets. Do you think US people are worried about the bombs from NK fighter jets? Who threaten who and who kill who? This is a problem that western medias often make mistakes on.
Ran, York, UK
It's obvious that there are viable evidence of the existence of all these like with the WoMD in Iraq. Oh wait...didn't the British and US government lie about that? hm...dejavu anyone?
Korea and Syria must have uranium or oil or something. Otherwise they wouldn't be meddled with. Going to google
Andreas Andreou, Nottingham, UK
"here we go this has been going on for years we went into iraq for oil nothing else or they should have gone into syria or iran there far more dangerous and pose legitamte threats to everyone.
mike, bridgend, uk"
Mike, the only problem with your theory is that these countries would have fought back.
Gary, Dallas,
Mike and Piskolti- We didn't break international law. It was good to invade Iraq to get saddam out of there if nothing else. We are not there for oil, but your belief that we are is your opinion. The main purpose of the war was to help the Iraqi's. Most of them like us.
Bryan, Houston, USA
it is one thing to build up aesenals which are massive and powerful. Whether the nation is Syria, North Korea, Iran, or the United States, Be clear about the consequences of its use. Even a dullard knows such a disaster would cripple this planet for centuries. Each person must forbid the horror.
George Bailin, Monroe, USA
Good Call Piskolti, what the world needs now is more nations willing to sell nuclear weaponry to the highest bidder. That's likely to make the world a safer place.
Nathan Micheals, Cairo, Egypt
North Korea has a GDP of 40 billion dollars....cough cough**
Jason, Barbour,
Yes, good for the heroic North Korean leadership! I'm sure the population is very grateful for the concentration camps, summary executions, and starvation.
When you have heaven on earth, like in North Korea, why would you choose to live in the oppressive hell of the imperialistic U.S.?
Thomas W., Los Angeles, California, USA
'Thunderbirds runway'
- does that make Bush 'the Hood'?
Bill Bird, Wallasey, UK
OK, the nut builds a tunnel to fly out of, and before it's done, it's already targeted for a big missle, and would end up being a tunnel full of aircraft parts no longer able to fly because of the massive earth and rock plug the missle left in place of the entrance / exiit--check mate!
Dan Feigenbaum, Suffolk, United States
Very Simple really... bunker buster the mt air base or nuke it.
bomb syria back to the stone age, and if Iran wants to go backwards 500 years them too. Don't even put one boot on the ground. Leave Iraq to the people in iraq, the strong will take power. If Iraq wants democracy let them choose.
Audi, paris, france
Hey Nick, Sunny Sale Empirical England
Where do the North Koreans get their money?
Their 2 biggest exports are US $100 bills and counterfeit Viagra. Sadly, thats no joke; Of course Kim Jong-il spends most of it on those Gary Glitter style platform shoes.
Ken, London, UK
Have no doubt it is all about MONEY and POWER
The US REPUBLICAN GUARD is determined to control the world, it was tried by ROME, SPAIN, PORTUGAL and not to forget GREAT BRITAIN !.
It could succede for a brief time if they pull a fast one on the UN like the IRAC fiasco.
Chris Sullivan, Forsyth, MO, USA
"Good for the North Koreans for trying to protect themselves..."
Interesting twist on how and why North Korea is in their situation. I suppose it is the United State's fault that Kim Jong Il keeps his own people under his thumb with the threat of torture and death.
You need a history lesson.
George, Brick, USA
Yes I forgot that we have to listen to "one" defector or the CIA saying that something is true just like the info they used to invade Iraq based on "one" defector about WMD's. Corroboration of any "intel" or "dumtel" is unimportant I guess. Propaganda at it's finest. Prove it or shut up!! Period.
Vee, BSfedcountry, USA
The NKA has built massive, bomb-proof doors over the runway entrances that open only when planes are sortieing. It would take a nuclear strike to seal them.
Orion, LA, USA
Are you people for real? North Korea is helping despotic regimes in one of the most unstable areas of the world. It would seem to me that we Europeans should look to our own recent history. Where do you think you would be today if the Nazis had acquired the atomic bomb? Go live and be free in Syria.
Jordan Donzé, Geneva, Switzerland
It's a darn site better to be safer with exercising a little wisdom and accepting this kind of information than it is to be stupid and ignore the hatred that some countries feel for America. Apparently these anti-American commentators would rather speak Arab or Korean. Gee, too bad you missed WWII.
Roberte , Baton Rouge, U.S.A.
if not for the evil u.s. the swiss would be speaking german
Brad , Martin, United States
Duh, The Swiss are a neutral country,kinda like the USA were until they jumped off the fence
oliver, Brighton,
Bomb them back to the pre-stone age era.
Totally remove the potential threat to the world.
It only has to be done once...
John Alldis, Murwillumbah, Australia
We weren't bogged down in Iraq when Clinton let North Korea launch their nuclear program with our unwitting assistance. Iran became a big problem and grew since Jimmy Carter showed the world how he could mess things up. Those who say the US can't be the world's policemen still say we are.
Michael B. Combs, Gualala, USA
I hate to put a damper on your USA saved the world rhetoric Brad but the Swiss have 4 official languages and one of them happens to be German. Its the most widely spoken out of the 4 languages, so.... Your not doing ur country any favours by posting that up on the net for the world 2 see
Kevin, Bristol, UK
At 6000ft, thats half as long as area 51's . Perhaps kim jong is interested in a secret fright program imitating the united states in the sense that we also have secretive military installations built inside mountains. Leaning with speculation that he has a black-bird tucked away in there.
apollo, chicago,
Looks like Blake and Mortimer comics, The Secret of the Swordfish. Endless script material for spy movies... More seriously, in the light of the recent exposure of Poly Technologies, it seems very unlikely that the trades of the chinese firm never crossed those of North Korea.
Bytovski, London,
Coming from the folks who found WMD's in Iraq, I'm sure all the information on North Korea, Syria, Iran is accurate!
John, San Diego, USA
Brad, is this a joke? 64% of Switzerland speaks German.
Eric, Reno, United States
Small wonder all these little tyrants are trying to provoke the U.S. I'm sure they have read history books and they would would dearly love to become another Germany or Japan or even another Viet Nam since they "WON". Perhaps they should send a little reconstruction aid our way.
Jm, Al Taji, Iraq
Come on. There is an entrance to this underground runway. That's like an Achilles' heel. At most, they can't be spied on. But as far as tactical advantage, forget it. Something is fishy.
Nels, San Francisco, USA
all im saying is that the americans r trying to negotiate with the north koreans and thats a good thing too cuz itll sav many ppl's lives
eric, cali,
Really dumb idea. Kim doesn't have the resources anyway.
Taylor, Los Angeles, USA
In my opinion the trade blocks were a mistake. The people don't want a dictatorship to protect them from an external threat when they have everything they could possibly want and feel safe from the outsiders. We currently think that by denying them resources they will succumb, but they never do.
Alex, Essex, England
if not for the evil u.s. the swiss would be speaking german
Brad , Martin, United States
It's too bad we're bogged down in Iraq-otherwise, we would be able to more effectively deal with this growing problem in Syria and Iran (not to mention N.Korea)
dave, hartford, usa
The world - the sane part anyway - is catching on to the dangers of North Korea. How interesting that in this interconnected world, peace in the mid East may depend on ending the malignancy in North Korea.
Max, Plymouth WI, USA
I bet most of this story is fabricated by the CIA and the Cheney junta. They have been proved to have done this with Iraq and no one believes US "intelligence" anymore.
Geddy, Geddyville,
So much hearsay, so little hard data. Is this story yet another American 'Evil Empire' disinformation exercise?
henry laycock, kingston,
What I don't really understand is how nuclear weapons in such close quarters would benefit any of those countries. The fallout will poison themselves...
Dude Smith, Wrentham, MA, USA
The best assurance that the US will not start a stupid war on Korean Peninsula is for North Korea to keep their approximate 10 nuclear weapons and to upgrade them and delicery missiles. Not enough to start a war but enough to discourage the US.No way should they negotiate them away,and despite media
bill rowe, campbell CA, USA
Where are they getting their money from? The country is an economic coffin. The population is a paltry 23 million starving people. GDP of about 28p probably. It doesn't add up. I would take this report with a pinch of salt if I were you.
Nick, Sunny Sale, Empirical England
If this story is correct, the underground airbase provides an ideal solution to disabling a large part of the North Korean Air Force. Pick off a couple of jets as they are about to exit the tunnel system, jamming the doors, then pop a cruise missile or two into the opening, home in time for tea.
Menno Aartsen, Fredericksburg, VA, USA
Good for the North Koreans for trying to protect themselves from an unscrupulous, agressive US regime which in its imperialistic drive is trampling international law under its feet.
Why not write about the innumerable victims of the present murderous US regime?
Piskolti, Signy, Switzerland
here we go this has been going on for years we went into iraq for oil nothing else or they should have gone into syria or iran there far more dangerous and pose legitamte threats to everyone.
mike, bridgend, uk