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China-Japan-Koreas
Norks build ‘Thunderbirds’ runway for war
2008-04-27
A couple paragraphs on what is more or less a mundane construction project, and then substantial blabber and nonsense on those evil neo-cons who bang the drums of war, followed by 'analysis' of the relationship between Syria and the Norks. How much of this is true?
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 6,000ft runway is a few minutesÂ’ flying time from the tense front line where the Korean PeopleÂ’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, reminiscent of the Thunderbirds television series, highlights the strange and secretive nature of the regime that provided the expertise for a partially built nuclear reactor in Syria, film of which was released by the CIA last week. The airstrike appears to have convinced North Korea to harden its own defences and to spend more on its military, even as it struggles to cope with a new food shortage that could see millions of its citizens go hungry. In recent days North Korea has ordered its people to be vigilant against “warmongers”.
Posted by:

#21  WAFF.com Thread > CHOSUN ILBO - NORTH KOREA ASKING FOR CHIN J-10. SO far various Netters are opining that any J-10 purchase is insensible given NOKOR's poor economy + pervasive threat of famine, + lack of experience wid post-modern hi-tech mil aircraft, + NOKOR AF would be hard-pressed to match US, SOKOR, + JAPANESE fighters heavy or light.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-04-27 22:46  

#20  ? A-4? The orginial purpose was for the smallest plane that could carry a umm.... oh.
Posted by: George Smiley   2008-04-27 20:50  

#19  update version of 5 o'clock Charlie?

I was thinking something along the lines of the A-4's original purpose...
Posted by: Pappy   2008-04-27 20:35  

#18  Only a reporter can think like this. Once you know where the opening is, anything coming out is dead meat.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2008-04-27 19:17  

#17  Ya know, it might be worth it for Bush just to flatten these pissants before he leaves office with an alpha strike using penetrating warheads on Syria an the Norks, cause them both to collapse and isolate Iran in the process.

Bush wouldn't want anything like that. It might make his trip to Beijing for the Olympics awkward.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2008-04-27 18:30  

#16  But can their stretch Maserati limo's Valmorphanize?
Posted by: Daffy Wheash4380   2008-04-27 18:07  

#15  update version of 5 o'clock Charlie?
Posted by: Frank G   2008-04-27 17:25  

#14  Considering how few hours a year that the Nork pilots fly and how many hours a year the SKor pilots fly, I expect that the "glorious People's air assault" would consist in the main of a swarm of badly piloted aircraft barely making it past the border {LOTS of SAMs on the SKor side}, and then dying in droves when they run into the Allied CAP over Seoul. A few might even drop bombs in a general vicinity of their targets (CEP of probably a mile), and make back across the border. But then, where are they going to land?
Basically, Kimmie is setting up his pilots for an Okinawa scenario against Seoul - burning up his air force in a mass kamikaze raid.
Posted by: Shieldwolf   2008-04-27 17:16  

#13  I'm no engineer, but it doesn't mention or seem obvious how these planes are supposed to land.

Perhaps they aren't supposed to.

Posted by: Pappy   2008-04-27 14:57  

#12  wouldn't them firing up their jets in this enclosed space cause carbon monoxide poisoning too
Posted by: sinse   2008-04-27 13:57  

#11  just like the Paleos, the Norks are really only happy when they're burrowing
Posted by: Frank G   2008-04-27 13:16  

#10  One of their airfields, built in the late '60's, has all its hangar space and repair facilities inside a mountain, while the runway is outside. Of course, the US knows all about that airfield, including the supposedly hidden air circulation vents. I'm sure that if we go back to war with Nort Korea, there will be a series of Tomahawk missiles flying into that space and detonating. Can you imagine what would happen if a 50kt weapon detonated in those enclosed spaces? I'm sure this "new" airfield is also well-known to the US military, just as we know about the 14 tunnels dug 2/3 of the way under the DMZ (and heavily targeted).
Posted by: Old Patriot   2008-04-27 13:15  

#9  FAE based thermobaric weapons do fun things to caverns.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-04-27 12:41  

#8  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.

I'm no engineer, but it doesn't mention or seem obvious how these planes are supposed to land.

Then again, getting shot down by F-15's - that's sort of landing, right?
Posted by: Raj   2008-04-27 08:50  

#7  This sounds vaguely familiar. I recall stories of this in the '80s. It's right there with the Soviet aircraft carrier/troop transport SSN_CVN_AT.
Posted by: George Smiley   2008-04-27 07:18  

#6  The project was identified by an air force defector from North Korea and captured on a satellite image by Google Earth

No doubt captured by more sophisticated tools as well. Not just the tunnel mouths, but a map of the interior spaces of the mountains. Technology is a wonderful thing!


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”.

How is it not losing face, when what President Kim though secret is revealed for any teenaged boy with a computer to laugh at?

Last year Hill persuaded the White House that the talks offered a realistic chance to accomplish a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-3 Korean war, in which more than 50,000 Americans died. His critics, such as John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador, say North Korea has a long recidivist history of selling missiles and unconventional weapons to unstable Middle Eastern regimes such as Syria, Iran and Libya.

John Bolton, esq. does see rather further into a stone than most. Clearly further than Christopher Hill of the United States State Department.
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-04-27 07:04  

#5  Ya know, it might be worth it for Bush just to flatten these pissants before he leaves office with an alpha strike using penetrating warheads on Syria an the Norks, cause them both to collapse and isolate Iran in the process.

THat way his successor gets to blame Bush, and Bush can leave knowing he did the right thing.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-04-27 02:20  

#4  Thunderbirds? Brings to marionettes, and ...

Team America!
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-04-27 02:15  

#3  And what, pray tell, will the Nork fighters do when they are in the air before radar and anti-juiche missiles take their fuel mizer a$$es down?
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2008-04-27 02:09  

#2  But it's America's fault that North Korea feels threatened, otherwise they wouldn't spend so much money on defense. Everything is America's fault, you just have to dig down a little bit.
Posted by: gromky   2008-04-27 01:49  

#1  I guess they never thought about what happens when the tunnel entrance is no longer there. How about a few cruise missiles flown right into the tunnel blowing nice big holes in little Kimmy's runway.

Plenty of money and food to complete this shit while the countryside starves. What Morons.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2008-04-27 01:12  

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