Third attack tunnel
The Third Attack Tunnel ( Korean 제 3 땅굴 , English Third Tunnel of Aggression or Third Infiltration Tunnel ) at Panmunjom is one of four formerly secret tunnels under the approximately four-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea , whose existence is currently known. It was built from North Korea towards South Korea.
history
The unfinished tunnel was found 44 km from Seoul in October 1978. Previously, in June 1978, an underground blast was noticed by the North Korean tunnel builders who had already penetrated as far as 435 m south of the southern border of the demilitarized zone. It took four months to the exact position of the tunnel to explore and a Abfangtunnel abzuteufen .
The unfinished tunnel is 1635 m long. It has a maximum height of 1.95 m and a maximum width of 2.1 m. It runs through the rock at a depth of about 73 m below the surface of the earth. Presumably it was planned for a surprise attack on Seoul from North Korea, and would have made possible the invasion of 30,000 soldiers an hour with light weapons. When the Third Tunnel was discovered, the UN command accused North Korea of breaking the 1953 ceasefire agreement signed by both parties at the end of the Korean War . The name attack tunnel was given to it by South Korea, where it was seen as an act of attack by North Korea.
North Korea initially denied having built the tunnel. North Korea said it was part of a coal mine because the tunnel walls were stained black from the soot and smoke from the underground blasting. Signs in the tunnel indicate that there are no geological signs of coal in the area. The walls in the tourist-accessible area are apparently made of granite, an igneous rock , while coal is only found in sedimentary rocks .
A total of four tunnels have been discovered so far, but there may be as many as 20 others. The South Korean military is using special forces to search for additional attack tunnels, although they have lost strategic importance since the development of North Korean long-range missiles.
Tourist attraction
The tunnel is now a tourist attraction and is still closely guarded.
Visitors from Seoul can take the DMZ train, among other things . You can then either descend a long ramp from the lobby in South Korea or take a rubber-tired train into the tunnel. Photography is prohibited in the tunnel. The South Koreans have erected three concrete barricades on the borderline of the demilitarized zone. Tourists can go up to the third barricade and look through a window at the second barricade.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b J. F. Vesecky, WA Kidneyberg, AM Despain: Tunnel Detection . In: SRI International ( JASON Technical Report) . Federation of American Scientists. April 1980. JSR-79-11.
- ↑ a b c d Secret Tunnel Under Panmunjom . Korean Overseas Information Service. October 1978. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- ↑ Malcolm Moore: Inside North Korea's Third Tunnel of Aggression . In: The Daily Telegraph , May 26, 2009.
- ^ I. William Zartman: Preventive negotiation: avoiding conflict escalation . Rowman & Littlefield, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8476-9895-0 , p. 97.
- ^ Steven D. Strauss: The complete idiot's guide to world conflicts . Alpha Books, 2002, ISBN 978-0-02-864366-3 , p. 121.
- ↑ David Armstrong: SEOUL lives life on the edge / Just 35 miles from the border with North Korea, the city crackles with a newfound sense of style . In: San Francisco Chronicle , June 3, 2007.
- ^ Korea Demilitarized Zone Incidents . GlobalSecurity.org.
- ↑ Lucy Williamson: Hunt for North Korea's 'hidden tunnels' , BBC. August 23, 2012. Accessed January 2, 2016.
- ^ Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Tours . Korea Tourism Organization. September 14, 2015. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
Web links
- Secret Tunnel Under Panmunjom . Korean Overseas Information Service. October 1978.
Coordinates: 37 ° 54 ′ 59 ″ N , 126 ° 41 ′ 55 ″ E