Tunnels... oh my!

Over at the marmot's Hole and interesting piece was posted that I thought deserved being snatched.

http://blog.marmot.cc/archives/2005/05/15/nk-has-547km-of-underground-tunnels/

The original piece is in Korean but marmot was nice enough to offer a little translation.
http://news.naver.com/hotissue/daily_read.php?section_id=100&office_id=025&article_id=0000556644&datetime=2005051406510556644
[Lee Yeong-jong, Kim Jeong-uk: JoongAng Ilbo] Mr. L, who visited North Korea not so long ago on business, witnessed a surprising scene on the road linking downtown Pyongyang with Sunan Air Base. In the early morning, a long line of residents could be seen leading up to near a hill about 1km off the main road, where it then suddenly vanished. Thousands of male and female laborers and soldiers in uniform were entering this one area as if they were being sucked into a black hole. The area where the progression disappeared seemed suspicious, as there were no facilities of any kind; just armed guards carrying red flags. Mr. L’s suspicions were cleared up only when he returned to Seoul and authorities explained to him that the place “was an underground facility presumed to be where North Korea produces munitions.” During a conversation with members of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee on Friday, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the underground tunnel in Kilju, North Hamgyeong Province was one of these underground facilities constructed all across North Korea.
Underground fortresses everywhere —> According to relevant authorities, North Korea has built military-related underground facilities in 8,200 places. North Korea is also moving major facilities beneath the earth, having moved about 180 major munitions factories underground in the late 1990s. There are even air bases where runways penetrate whole mountains. North Korea is evaluated at being among the world’s best at constructing underground facilities.
An intelligence official said Friday, “North Korean underground facilities larger than a set standard have been under joint U.S.-South Korean surveillance for the last 10 years… When there’s a lot of activity, such as a large amount of dirt and sand resulting from digging, the site becomes a target of intense surveillance.”

North Korea has also turned a tidy profit from its ditch digging. In 1998, a U.S. spy satellite (KH-11) picked up thousands of soldiers conducting work at an underground facility at Kumchang-ni. In order to pay a confirmation to the site, which was suspected to be a nuclear facility, the U.S. paid “the world’s greatest admission fee” of 600,000 tons of rice, but an inspection team turned up nothing other than an empty cave.

North Korea spends a lot on building and maintaining underground facilities. Its underground munitions factories, the building of which began full-scale in the 1970s, suffer from serious problems due to the country’s antiquated power grid. This is related to the fact that the power grid losses about 30 percent of the North’s real annual electricity consumption of roughly 12 billion kWh (Unification Ministry figure). Intelligence officials figure there have also been a string of large-scale disasters involving explosives at the underground munitions plants, where the environment is poor due to dampness and other factors.

Kilju, according to NIS —> During a closed-door talk on Friday, NIS head Ko Young-kooc said, “South Korea and the U.S. have been monitoring signs of digging at a tunnel of indeterminate use in the Kilju area from the late 1990s.” He reported, however, “There is no evidence as of yet of signs of a nuclear test.” According to ruling and opposition lawmakers with the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, Ko reported, “Some media reports that claimed signs had been detected of preparations for a nuclear test, like indications the tunnel in Kilju was being sealed up and a viewing stand constructed, were not factual.”

All Ko would say was, “The U.S. used to conduct underground nuclear tests in vertical and horizontal tunnels, and India and Pakistan did the same… The Kilju area has a rock floor, so it’s a good environment for a nuclear test.” He said, however, “For it to be for a nuclear test, we need to detect an observatory and additional facilities and a lot of people and supplies, but we haven’t detected any of this.”

I was just reading about a defectors testimony regarding North Korean tunnels. He had stated that there were massive tunnels with makeshirt cities in them resembling those in the South. They would be used to train intelligence officers in the "intricacies" of South Korea.

Man, I'm starting to really believe the whole "Morlocks and Eloi" thing.

Difference is living conditions, skin color, eating habits, hmmm, it all fits.