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North
Korea’s Underground Bunkers
Hundreds
of bunkers are decoys, a defector says, while hundreds more contain material
for a possible invasion.
SEOUL,
Nov. 16, 2009—North Korea built hundreds of bunkers at the demilitarized
zone (DMZ) separating it from South Korea even as the previous Seoul government
pursued its policy of opening to the North, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.
A
well-informed North Korean defector said in an interview that Pyongyang had
built at least 800 bunkers, including an unknown number of decoys, to prepare
for a possible invasion of South Korea while South Korean president Roh Moo
Hyun was in office.
“Each
bunker contains military equipment that can fully arm 1,500 to 2,000
soldiers,” the defector told RFA’s Korean service, adding that
construction began in 2004—the second year of the Roh government.
“If
a soldier carried all his military equipment, which weighs 32 kilos, and came
to the DMZ in full gear, he would already be exhausted before infiltrating into
the South. So they built bunkers at the DMZ and put all their operations
equipment there,” he said.
The
defector, who once worked as an informant for South Korea’s Defense
Intelligence Command (DIC), uses the alias Kim Ju Song.
He
declined to give any personal details and asked to have his voice disguised for
broadcast to protect relatives still in North Korea.
He
is scheduled to arrive in the United States on Monday and attend a closed-door
session with U.S. legislators in Washington Wednesday.
More
than 1,000 bunkers planned
“In
the bunkers, there are South Korean military uniforms and name tags, so that
they can disguise themselves as South Korean troops. Also reserved
are…60-mm mortar shells, condensed high explosives, and all sorts of
bullets.”
The
bunkers are not linked to a series of underground passages built in the past to
attack South Korea, he said. About 70 percent of the roughly 800 bunkers are
fakes, he said, decoys “to confuse the South.”
“The
North was trying to finish constructing bunkers by early 2008 with the target
number of 1,000 to 1,200,” Kim said.
Nuclear-armed
North Korea possesses one of the world’s largest standing armies,
employing some 1.2 million of its 22.7 million citizens in the military.
The
bulk of the forces are deployed along the DMZ and make use of a vast and
complex tunneling network to hide their movement from the South Korean military
in South Korea’s capital Seoul—a mere 40 kms (25 miles) away.
Kim
resettled in Seoul in the early 2000s and worked with the DIC from 2004-2007.
As director of a trade center run by the military, he was given the military
title sangja, somewhere between lieutenant colonel and colonel.
Through
his work for the DIC, Kim said, he wanted to let people in South Korea know the
North is not giving up “its principal target of unifying the Korean
Peninsula by using armed force.”
“Regardless
of Seoul’s appeasement policy, or whatever the South does toward the
North, Pyongyang hasn’t given up its aim of unifying the Korean Peninsula
by military force.
They
are sticking to this principle and teaching North Koreans about it,” Kim
said.
Trade
center with military ties
South
Korean intelligence authorities asked Kim to explain the bunkers in August
2005, he said.
Two
months later, he said, “I delivered to the DIC my investigation results,
including the fact that the North began to build the bunkers in 2004 and that
their purpose is to reserve military equipment for attacking the South.”
“In
August 2006, I enticed a North Korean platoon leader, who was involved in
building the bunkers, into Yanji, China, where three DIC agents interrogated
him for two days. So we got all the information about the bunkers, such as the
bunkers’ blueprints and how thick their walls and covers are.”
South
Korean intelligence officials declined to comment on Kim’s account.
Kim
also described his work in North Korea as director of a military-affiliated
trade center at a city in the North.
“I
worked as a trader for a long time, but I worked as director for six
years,” he said. “In each province, there are around two trade
centers that are run by the North Korean military.”
Trade
centers and their employees are given military status “to intensify the
power of control, and to separate the military affiliates from the society, so
that we are not bothered by local leaders. The purpose is to give special
status to the military affiliates and help us earn more hard currency.”
Although
he declined to explain why he chose to defect, Kim said he eventually bribed
his way into China, where he spent two months before his connections there
arranged passage to South Korea.
“I
have a human network in China that I built while I was in North Korea. I got
some help from them,” he said.
“I
used to visit China for business. And my Chinese counterparts also came to
North Korea. Those business exchanges helped me build the human network.”
Radio
critical
North
Korea allowed ships to carry shortwave radios as a safety measure after a
seismic wave struck North Korea’s East coast and killed thousands of
fishermen in 2005, Kim said.
Radio
channels were fixed to government frequencies, but North Koreans took advantage
of this relative relaxation to begin smuggling in radios from China and are now
selling them on the black market.
Pyongyang
remains deeply wary of international broadcasts, he said.
“The
North Korean government’s biggest concern is international radio
broadcasts like those of Radio Free Asia. Content promoting democracy and
disclosing leaders’ corruption as well as North Korea’s human
rights situation—the Kim Jong Il regime considers this its biggest
threat.”
“When
people learn these things, they don’t believe in the regime anymore. In
this context, I think those broadcasts are fulfilling their mission fully and
serving as a pillar for the spirit of the North Korean people.”
Original
reporting and translation by Song-Wu Park in Seoul. Written and produced in
English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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