North Korea designates Chagang Province as special zone, possibly to conceal nuclear weapons

DailyNK ^ | 2018-05-23 | Lee Sang Yong

[TigerLikesRooster]

North Korea designates Chagang Province as special zone, possibly to conceal nuclear weapons

Lee Sang Yong | 2018-05-23 11:01



The North Korean government has named Chagang Province a “Special Songun (military-first) Revolutionary Zone” and has reportedly created plans to designate the province a strategic region for the military. The region is mountainous, and harbors ideal terrain in which to conceal the country’s nuclear weapons.

North Korea has widely publicized its intent to shut down the country’s nuclear program as demanded by the international community. This intent has been exemplified by an event scheduled for May 23 to close its nuclear site in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province, prior to the planned US-DPRK summit. There have been reports, however, that the North Korean authorities are making efforts to conceal the country’s nuclear weapons and associated material.

“Designating Chagang Province as a Special Songun Revolutionary Zone was discussed during a lecture for members of the Ministry of State Security last month," a high-level source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on May 18.

The source reported that the “lecturer said that making Chagang Province a strategic foothold for the military in the face of modern warfare is the legacy of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il […] He emphasized that the project must go forward without any issues because Kim Jong Un was doing it out of respect for his father’s and grandfather’s legacies.”

Chagang Province has over 98% of its area covered by mountains. This renders it largely unsuitable for traditional industry, but North Korea has developed military-related industries in the province for strategic reasons.

The province is located on the border with China, and there are reportedly underground tunnels in which high-level North Korean officials, including Kim Jong Un, can escape across the border. There are also archives containing material on the Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un regimes in underground bunkers in the region.

“Nuclear weapons can be hidden anywhere, but the North Korean authorities have chosen, it seems, a place where even satellites will have difficulty locating them,” a source in Chagang Province said.

“Hiding the nuclear weapons and material there also means the authorities plan to store them in a highly contained facility.”

The North Korean authorities have already created airtight plans for storage, according to the source. The government is focusing on a plan to strengthen the ideological background of residents in the region to prevent any secrets from leaking to the outside world. The authorities also appear to be preventing free movement in the province as the area becomes fortified.

“The North Korean authorities have ordered that an organizational system similar to that used in Pyongyang must be implemented in Chagang Province, and efforts to strengthen the ideological background of local residents so they meet the standards of those living in such a special zone must continue,” the Chagang -based source added.

He also predicted that some residents would be expelled from certain areas of the province, stating, “Orders have come down that anyone who spent more than a year in hard labor must be expelled from major towns in the province to the countryside.”

“The provincial police’s resident registration department will hold its annual investigation to confirm that each resident is living in the location they are registered in [...] Chagang Province will become similar to Pyongyang, where ordinary people cannot gain entry very easily,” the Pyongyang-based source explained.

“The North Korean authorities have created a new plan to build checkpoints to control the people, cars and supplies that enter and exit the province. For example, there is a checkpoint to be built on the road that runs between Huichon, Chagang Province, and Hyangsan, North Pyongan Province, that will be under the direct control of the Ministry of State Security.”

[TigerLikesRooster]

If true, NK is converting the entire province into a giant underground bunker. It could be a place where they take shelter and fend off enemies, in addition to hiding their nuclear weapons.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[mrsmith]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_redoubt
“A national redoubt or national fortress is an area to which the (remnant) forces of a nation can be withdrawn if the main battle has been lost or even earlier if defeat is considered inevitable. Typically, a region is chosen with a geography favouring defence, such as a mountainous area or a peninsula, to function as a final holdout to preserve national independence and host an effective resistance movement for the duration of the conflict.”

Hard to believe they’d get away with hiding the movement of their nukes or nuke development crews to there.

[TigerLikesRooster]

One can envision a large web of interconnected tunnels, a kind of vastly expanded version of Viet Cong tunnels. They may move things around inside the tunnels without entering from and coming out to the outside. You see something going in there, but if you go inside, you learn that it has already disappeared and are not sure where it went.

I am not an expert, and not sure if they can really dodge inspections this way. But I assume they will try something.

[cba123]

I hope (and I believe) that the administration is fully on top of these sorts of plans, and has our own plans to completely negate any plotting along these lines, to keep up with any shenanigans NK may attempt.

But it is sure good for you to also discuss this sort of thing here, in a public forum, just to keep the matter on the public table, at the same time.

I really hope NK denuclearizes. For real. I also am completely confident that Trump cannot be rolled by NK or China.

So although I am not sure that Kim doesn’t actually have the plans to hide his nukes.

I am not sure he can.

That is where I sort of lose sight of exactly what that means.

If Kim is intending on attempting to hornswaggle Trump, I don’t think that is a good idea.

At all.

[mrsmith]

You gotta assume they’re up to no good.
Also they supposedly have chemical and biological weaponry to hide.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

We will also need to get a look at those archives to properly understand what has been going on these last 70 years vis a vis NK and China.

[Paladin2]

The Swiss seem to be able to successfully industrialize mountainous areas....

[AmericanInTokyo]

Time for Uncle Bunker Buster.

[Jack Hammer]

Kim Jong-un continues to dick around the world. And he’s very, very good at it.

[DaveA37]

“Hard to believe they’d get away with hiding the movement of their nukes or nuke development crews to there.”.......

Ever hear that country music classic by Johnny Cash, “One Piece At A Time”?

[tet68]

“Orders have come down that anyone who spent more than a year in hard labor must be expelled from major towns in the province to the countryside.”

Are there any sentences of less than a year?