2008-04-27 Kim Jong-il builds Thunderbirds runway for war in North Korea

2008-04-27 The Sunday Times \Michael Sheridan\Uzi Mahnaimiin \North Korea\warmongery\Syria\shock and awe http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3822538.ece Kim Jong-il builds "Thunderbirds" runway for war in North Korea &ldquo;North Korean military engineers are completing an underground runway beneath a mountain that can protect fighter aircraft from attack until they take off at high speed through the mouth of a tunnel.&rdquo;  North Korean military engineers are completing an underground runway beneath a mountain that can protect fighter aircraft from attack until they take off at high speed through the mouth of a tunnel. The 6,000ft runway is a few minutes' flying time from the tense front line where the Korean People's Army faces soldiers from the United States and South Korea. The project was identified by an air force defector from North Korea and captured on a satellite image by Google Earth, according to reports in the South Korean press last week. It is one of three underground fighter bases among an elaborate subterranean military infrastructure built to withstand a "shock and awe" assault in the first moments of a war, the defector said.   