North Korea Cranking Up Its Military Machine
Filed under: Asia, North Korea — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on April 27, 2008 @ 4:00 pm CEST
The Sunday Times reports that ‘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 news of the secret underground runway comes shortly after news broke that North Korea had assisted Syria with its nuclear project.
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 is nicknamed a “Thunderbirds runway,” because it’s similar to the runway used by the hero puppets. Who knew that the North Korean leaders enjoy watching the Thunderbirds?
Anyway, it’s clear that North Korea is preparing for war with the United States and its closes allies. The Israeli strike against the nuclear site in Syria has given the North Koreans the impression that they could be next. So, the communists in charge of the country have decided to crank up their military machine… Many millions will be spend on this project, while the average North Korean is dying from hunger and poverty (North Korea has a tremendous food problem).
Meanwhile there’s also some development on the CIA front; a short while ago, the CIA released videos of the Syrian nuclear reaction. The videos proved that the Syrians built the reaction with North Korean help. Many people have wondered why the CIA would release the video now. It seems that the leading theory has become:
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.
1 Patrick Murphy
April 27, 2008 @ 10:42 pm CESTGood luck landing back in the "tunnel!" This digging runways into mountains by the NKAF is nothing new, it has been going on for years, along with the movement of troops and supplies forward. Basically the whole story is a big yawn and is old news. Face it, none of the aircraft in military use by NK can stand up to a fight with anything the West has and more to the point the kind of aircraft prevelent in their inventory are of a defensive nature.
2 Jason
April 27, 2008 @ 11:03 pm CESTSomeone needs to brush up on his Battlestar Galactica.
3 Michael Merritt
April 27, 2008 @ 11:05 pm CEST"Who knew that the North Korean leaders enjoy watching the Thunderbirds?"
You’re talking about Kim Jong Il and his cronies. This is the guy who loves everything Western, while denying anything for his people.
4 Cernig
April 27, 2008 @ 11:48 pm CESTLOL!The author of that Times report is Uzi Mahnaimi, author of more crappy anti-Iran stories than even Amir Taheri, as PJM’s Yourish has noted often enough. He’s also author of the Brits Held In Iran story in the same paper today.
Regards, C
5 Tully
April 28, 2008 @ 12:33 am CESTGee, Cernig, you really have a rock-solid ad hominem hard-on for the guy, don’t you?
6 Cernig
April 28, 2008 @ 2:07 am CESTAd hominem my ass, Tully. The guy’s a serial reporter of fabrications using "anon sources". Even rightwing Israeli observers like Yourish say so. That fact makes anything further he writes using similiar sources likewise difficult to believe.
7 Tully
April 28, 2008 @ 2:59 am CESTMaybe you should look up what ad hominem means…
In any case, his is not the only name on those stories and your hard-on for him does not address the stories themselves. I mean, even Dan Rather found a fact now and again.
8 Cernig
April 28, 2008 @ 3:12 pm CESTThe stories themselves are anonymously sourced and have not a shred of actual hard evidence to back them.
Ad Hominem: Ad hominem arguments are always invalid in syllogistic logic, since the truth value of premises is taken as given, and the validity of a logical inference is independent of the person making the inference. However, ad hominem arguments are rarely presented as formal syllogisms, and their assessment lies in the domain of informal logic and the theory of evidence.[1] The theory of evidence depends to a large degree on assessments of the credibility of witnesses, including eyewitness evidence and expert witness evidence. Evidence that a purported eyewitness is unreliable, or has a motive for lying, or that a purported expert witness lacks the claimed expertise can play a major role in making judgements from evidence.
Regards, C
9 Tully
April 28, 2008 @ 4:03 pm CESTCongrats, Cernig, you can cut and paste! Scissors and Elmer’s?
The stories themselves are anonymously sourced and have not a shred of actual hard evidence to back them.
Wrong again. They are quite speculative in spots, but the background is solidly factual. Some of the speculation is based on unnamed designated sources, and that should always be noted when assessing reliability. But that doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it means they should not be relied upon without confirmation. It doesn’t mean that anytime a journalist offers an unnamed or anonymous source they’re just making shit up.
Examples of factual evidence in the Korea story: Israeli aircraft did indeed destroy a facility in Syria, and the CIA did indeed offer up solid evidence that it was a nuclear facility. NK and Syria do indeed have close relations, and there was indeed a massive and explosive train disaster four years ago in Ryongchon, North Korea, that killed dozens, including foreign Syrian nationals who were military arms technicians. There has indeed been an increase in "scientific personnel" traffic between NK and Syria. China did sell Syria a reactor. NK has a habit of building aircraft launch ramps and artillery emplacements deep inside of mountains–it’s the only way they can keep them operational against a massive first-wave airstrike. Mr. Rone-ry has no trouble wasting people on brute excavation projects to get results.
Etc. I happen to agree that the particular journalist you love so much is not exactly one of the profession’s most dependable, but rather than dismissing ad hominem all stories coming from him (especially ones with other’s bylines also attached) one should always check for the specifics and address the specifics. Ad hominem is just a lazy way to avoid doing that.