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Korea
The Big Dig - Korea Style
2003-02-28
James Bond Alert
Richard Spencer reports from Suwon where a scientist claims that a network of North Korean tunnels threatens the South.
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah...
Yoon Yo-kil holds up a length of wire. Here, he says, is proof of a vast network of tunnels deep underneath South Korea. Out of them at any time 400,000 North Korean soldiers could pour and, in one swift move, take his country captive.
The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah
Next to him, Choi Min-yong walks along holding out two metal dowsing rods. Ummm...
As they twitch and sway, Mr Yoon, an elderly research scientist, can hardly contain his excitement. "Here is a concrete wall," he says. The rods twitch again.
Owfergawdsake
"There is the railway track." And again. "The other wall - you see?"
Oh. Dowsing rods...
Next to them is a vast hole in the ground. The military will not take Mr Yoon and Mr Choi the tunnel below seriously, so Mr Yoon, Mr Choi and their colleagues have decided to do the job for them, spending 100 million won — £55,000 — digging for it themselves. It would be easy to dismiss Mr Yoon and his colleagues as cranks, and many do. But there is some truth in what Mr Yoon says. From about 1970, the North Koreans did indeed start digging a network of tunnels, at a depth of 220ft. Four have been found, and the Defence Ministry accepts that there may be 20 others... But these are up to two miles long, not the 35 miles it would take to reach Seoul, or 30 miles further to where Mr Yoon is digging in Suwon... People started approaching him to say they could hear strange sounds from underground.
From 220 feet underground?
The wire came from an attempt to drill down to find a tunnel. After a few attempts, the drill bit became stuck. A crane was summoned to pull it free and when it did, the heavy-duty wire was attached. "How could this wire get 45 yards down into solid rock?" he asks. "It must have been the North Koreans."
Somehow my little heart isn't going pitty-pat over the diamond hardness of this data. I'd suggest that if the dowsing rods really work, they follow the tunnels to where they come out, and have the entire South Korean army hop in and conquer North Korea by surprise next Thursday night.
But is such an invasion plan feasible? What of the 37,000 American troops stationed in South Korea, the guarantee of peace for 50 years? Could they be taken so easily? They will be rounded up while they sleep, Mr Yoon says...
The entrire 2nd ID has nap time at 1500 Zulu every day, just after milk and cookies.
An American officer describes how intense the North's hatred still is. "When no one is looking, they shout insults at us," said Capt Brian Davis, under the watchful gaze of North Korean soldiers a few feet away. They eat gobs of kimchee and have whistling contests It's awful. They single me out because they know my name and know I speak Korean.
I'm not entirely sure about this. I wouldn't put any zany scheme past the N. Koreans, but how would they pay for it? A 60 mile tunnel? I'm no geologist, but Korea is fairly active in that regard. I wouldn't want to be in one of those tunnels during a quake. Thinking along those lines, I would hope that somebody thought to install micro-seismographs along the DMZ, and elsewhere, so they might watch for this sort of chicanery.

Mr. Yoon's "while they slumber" analysis leaves a little bit to be desired, but that might be bad translation on his part or the Telegraph's. Some of the tunnels were (are?) huge, but one extending this far likely isn't as big. The NKors would use tunnels to create chaos in the rear, but not for the main invasion force. And then there's the problem of that invasion force Deserves further investigation, I'd say.
Posted by:Pete Stanley

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