What a War With North Korea Might Look Like

What a War With North Korea Might Look Like

NORTH Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will escape to a vast complex of underground tunnels if a nuclear war breaks out — with a huge supply of his favourite cheese.

And a military expert says that if the brutal leader of the Stalinist regime does go underground he will be harder to take out than 9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The luxury-loving tyrant’s passion for emmental is believed to have been sparked when he studied at a university in Switzerland.

A UN report in 2014 found that Kim loves to flash his cash while the vast majority of his impoverished nation struggles to find enough food to survive.

The state spends an estimated $33 million on posh booze and in 2012, he reportedly became so fat that he developed a cyst on his ankle that required surgery to remove.

Aidan Foster-Carter, an expert on North Korea and honorary senior research fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University, said that Kim Jong un is unlikely to go without his favourite treats in the event of war.

He told Sun Online: “I’m sure he would go to ground — he already disappeared twice in August.”

When asked about whether Kim will stockpile his favourite cheese, he added: “I’m sure that wherever he goes he’ll be provided for.”

Yesterday it emerged that the elite US Navy Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden is training the South Korean military to assassinate Kim Jong un.

Seal Team Six, the group sent to Pakistan in 2011 to kill Bin Laden, is taking part in secretive drills alongside South Korean commandos to take out the North Korean leader in the event of a war.

But the fact that most of North Korea’s military bases are buried deep underground and Kim Jong un’s fanatical bodyguards and security measures will make an assassination extremely difficult.

Experts, using information provided by defectors and satellite images, say it is the most heavily-fortified country in the world.

Admiral Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy and a decorated war hero, says a “decapitation strike” to take out Kim would be harder than killing Osama bin Laden, who evaded his pursuers for a decade after the September 11 terror attacks.

He said: “Although the US and allied intelligence is extremely good and North Korea has been a target of interest for a long time it’s extremely difficult to be able to hit every bit of the tunnel network.

“The tunnels that extended into South Korea were there for a long time before they were discovered.

“Killing him will be extremely difficult.”

In April Dr James Hoare, who worked at the British embassy in Pyongyang, spoke about how a huge base used to enrich the uranium for nuclear warheads was first spotted last year.

It had been disguised as an aircraft parts factory inside a mountain next to Panghyon air base.

He said: “Since the Korean War the North are masters at putting things underground.

“You may know what is on the surface, and you may have suspicions about other places, but there is no guarantee any strike at its nuclear facilities would take it all out.

“Then you run the danger of provoking them without disarming them.”

Political prisoners were used to dig 5.7m wide tunnels deep into the granite Mantapsan mountain so nuclear weapons tests could be carried out.

Many died from radiation constructing the Punggye-ri sit, where North Korea claims to have successfully tested their latest nuke.

The US army has estimated there are 6,000-8,000 subterranean facilities in the country.

Defectors reportedly helped the US map the network. Much of it is under Pyongyang and could be used as a bunker.

The North also has around 84 secret tunnels in mountains bordering the South. They were built to send out 30,000 troops an hour. Some are big enough for tanks. Others have a railway.

The South has blocked four tunnels it found straddling into its territory.

Missile launchers also overlook the South’s capital Seoul. It is believed Kim has enough non- nuclear shells to destroy the city. He also has chemical weapons stored in unknown locations.

His dad Kim Jong-il built a huge base in Mount Baekdusan near China in case of an attack.

Grandad Kim Il-Sung, the country’s founder, used a forest as his HQ in WWII.

In 1963 he said: “The entire nation must be made into a fortress. We must dig into the ground to protect ourselves.”

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This story originally appeared in The Sun and has been republished with permission.