North Korean leader's 007-style secret escape tunnels revealed by defector
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has a network of 300 metre (1,000 ft) deep emergency escape tunnels connecting Pyongyang with key sites around the country, a top-level defector claims.
The tunnels, reminiscent of the lair of a James Bond villain, are reported to contain railway lines, a water supply and even vegetation. According to Hwang Jang Yop, formerly North Korea’s chief political philosopher, they connect areas as far as 30 miles (50km) away from Pyongyang, enabling the country’s leaders to escape the capital and ultimately sail to China via a West coast port.
“There were fresh water and grass growing within an underground tunnel that linked Pyongyang to a nearby mountain,” Mr Hwang told Radio Free Asia, a station supported by the US Government, which broadcasts into North Korea for three hours a day. “In particular, an ultra-deep underground tunnel was built to connect one of Kim’s residences in Pyongyang to [the then port city of] Nampo.”
Mr Hwang said that the tunnels also connect to Yeongwon, the site of a mountain villa, where Kim Il Sung, Mr Kim’s father and North Korea’s founding president, died of a heart attack in 1994. They also travel to Suncheon, north of Pyongyang, which is reported to be the site of a uranium mine.
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The tunnels, reminiscent of the lair of a James Bond villain, are reported to contain railway lines, a water supply and even vegetation. According to Hwang Jang Yop, formerly North Korea’s chief political philosopher, they connect areas as far as 30 miles (50km) away from Pyongyang, enabling the country’s leaders to escape the capital and ultimately sail to China via a West coast port.
“There were fresh water and grass growing within an underground tunnel that linked Pyongyang to a nearby mountain,” Mr Hwang told Radio Free Asia, a station supported by the US Government, which broadcasts into North Korea for three hours a day. “In particular, an ultra-deep underground tunnel was built to connect one of Kim’s residences in Pyongyang to [the then port city of] Nampo.”
Mr Hwang said that the tunnels also connect to Yeongwon, the site of a mountain villa, where Kim Il Sung, Mr Kim’s father and North Korea’s founding president, died of a heart attack in 1994. They also travel to Suncheon, north of Pyongyang, which is reported to be the site of a uranium mine.