Chosun
7/21/2006 (not sure of year)
Mammoth Underground Square and Road in Pyongyang
The Pyongyang subway has two generally-unknown facilities: a mammoth “underground square” in preparation against war, and an “underground road” between the subway stations, linking the Mount Kumsu Memorial Palace and the Sunan Airport in the suburbs of Pyongyang.
The underground square, built as a bunker command post for the Supreme Command of the People’s Armed Forces and a space for storing manpower and equipment during a war, is located in Anhak-dong, near the Nakwon Subway Station, famous for the Central Zoo at the foot of Mount Taesong. The square is said to be comparable in area to the Kim Il Sung Square, which can accommodate a rally of over 100,000 people.
The underground square is learned to have been constructed by the General Military Engineer Corps of the People’s Armed Forces in the 1970s when the second phase of the Pyongyang subway was built, linking the five stations of Hyoksin, Chonsung, Samhung, Kwangmyong and Nakwon. The command post in the underground square is said to be replete with state-of-the-art communications equipment and billeting facilities, and a host of 10-ton trucks including Soviet-made Zils and Japanese Isizus are kept in the square to transport troops and arms to be shipped by the subway under an emergency.
The underground road between subway stations connects the late national founder and president Kim Il Sung’s palace and the current Mount Kumsu Memorial Palace, with the Sunan Airport. It was said to have been built in case Kim Il Sung had to be evacuated by plane. The Mount Kumsu Memorial Palace is connected to the Kwangmyong Subway Station. The underground road is said to have been maintained even after the death of president Kim Il Sung in 1994 under the judgment that it can be of use in the event the North Korean military leadership, headed by Kim Jong Il, should need to move to Sunan Airport from the underground square in the case of a war.
