Planes Would Operate From 6,000-Foot Tunnel Runway

Cumulo-granite... it's not just dark aviation humor anymore.

London's Sunday Times reports a defector from North Korea's military has alerted the west to what appears to be a North Korean military base being built under a mountain.

The goal would be to create a 6,000-foot runway which could be hardened against a "shock-and-awe" campaign during the opening moments of an enemy attack, shielding warplanes from fire until they emerged at high speed from the mouth of a tunnel.

The South Korean press reported the project was identified by an air force defector from North Korea and captured on a satellite image by Google Earth. The fighter base is near the demilitarized zone with South Korea, and is one of three underground bases reportedly under construction.

Foreign policy analysts are already a-twitter with discussions of the significance of the new evidence of underground military infrastructure, especially against the backdrop of Kim Jong-il's nuclear ambitions and impoverished populace. The highly-beligerant regime recently unleashed a new round of thinly-veiled threats against US interests in South Korea.

"The prevailing situation requires the whole party and army and all the people to get fully prepared to go into action," state-run North Korean media said on Friday.

While there's just enough ambiguity here to raise eyebrows, two things appear certain. First, a lecture from your flight instructor is no longer the most-feared consequence of getting off the runway centerline during climbout.

Second... if the US ever finds itself at war to defend South Korea, the last place you'll want to be is under a mountain in North Korea, taxiing for takeoff at one end of a 6,000-foot earthen cannon barrel.

FMI: www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/