North Korea’s target island focus of rogue nation’s military fury

THIS tiny island off the North Korean coast is being used as a key military asset - but Kim Jong-un wants to turn it into a tourism hotspot as well.

A STRATEGIC part of the North Korea coastline is playing a pretty big role in Kim Jong-un’s future plans.

Not only is the seaside city of Wonsan and surrounds a vital military asset, but it’s also being mooted as the next big tourism drawcard for the secretive regime.

Forming part of the country’s “byungjin” strategy, Wonsan’s tourism development sits alongside Kim’s ambitious missile program.

Located just a few kilometres away from a major ski resort, Wonsan is where Kim has tested many of his missiles.

A nearby island has been used as target practice for the country’s powerful artillery displays with craters seen on the landscape. This island has one purpose.

According to Reuters, Wonsan’s city centre is surrounded by dozens of anti-aircraft and artillery gun placements and it is home to some of the best beaches on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim’s heavily fortified holiday palace is at the nearby town of Songdowon.

Tourist attractions and various military sites are all located in the city which has a population of around 360,000.

The compound has its own private beach, luxury yachts and private train station for the Kims.

Kim Jong-un witnessed a huge military drill which fired on and close to this small island, just off the beaches of Wonsan. Picture: Google Earth

According to Dr Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst in defence strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, it is a strange idea to combine both military and tourism interests.

Dr Davis said North Korea may want to attract international tourists as part of an intelligence gathering opportunity as well as using the city as a money-spinning venture.

“There’s also potential to exploit tourists but I don’t see how tourists would want to go anywhere near there, especially after the death of the American student (Otto Warmbier),” he said.

“No tourist in their right mind would go to North Korea.”

Mr Warmbier, a university student who visited North Korea in 2016, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour for attempting to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel.

Soon after his sentencing, the 22-year-old suffered a severe neurological injury and fell into a coma. After diplomatic efforts secured his release after 17 months in prison, Warmbier was flown back to the US in July but died six days later.

Dr Davis also said he was surprised Kim would want international tourists and eyes anywhere near his holiday compound.

He also said it was clear the redevelopment of the area was still in its early stages and predicted many of the proposed projects would remain empty.

North Korea tests rockets and missiles near the city of Wonsan. Picture: Google Maps

TARGET ISLAND

In April this year, North Korea released a series of photos showing off its firepower in its “largest ever” military demonstration which took place near the eastern coastal town.

Kim supervised the display and gave the order to start the fire demonstration, according the state-funded Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The artillery was fired at a target island just off the beach to mark the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army.

North Korea completed a combined fire demonstration of to mark the 85th founding of the country’s army off the coast of Wonsan last April. Picture: KCNA/AFP

The display included 300 “large-calibre” self-propelled guns lining up along a beach and firing all at once.

A similar exercise was repeated in August as part of a simulated attack on South Korean border islands billed as a “target-striking contest.”

Dr Davis said the satellite images of the island didn’t appear to show many artillery craters which suggested such displays were for more to show off North Korea’s artillery might rather than its precision skills.

“The island is a big target and you can see the craters from where artillery has landed,” he said.

“However judging by the amount of artillery that was used you can also see a lot missed their target.”

Dr Davis said the displays would have been more about showing the damage such artillery could cause.

The April exercises in Wonsan were said to be North Korea’s “largest ever” military demonstration. Picture: KRT/AP

CENTRE OF TESTS

According to Reuters, Wonsan is at the centre of all Kim’s tests and is where he perfected the Musadan intermediate range ballistic missile technology.

Dr Davis pointed out that Kim was now using solid fuel missiles which meant launches were more mobile and could occur anywhere, making them harder for the west to target and detect.

Experts agree the Wonsan remains strategically important to North Korea.

Research Associate at California’s James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, Shea Cotton, told news.com.au that Wonsan had always been an active missile testing area.

He said Kim Il-sung, who was North Korea’s former leader from 1948 to 1994, used to test all his missiles up around Musudan-ri in the remote northeast part of the coast.

When his son took power, the younger Kim Jong-il moved almost all their missile testing activities to Wonsan, in part to be closer to one of his palaces.

“Kim Jong-un has really continued that,” Mr Cotton said. “The whole area sees a lot of missile and artillery testing activities.”

Mr Cotton also highlighted how it wasn’t just Wonsan which staged tests, with the nearby Masikryong (or Masik Pass) Ski Resort also hosting such displays.

Kim Jong-un watching a Scud missile launch on June 29, 2014 from Masikryong Ski Resort. Picture: KCNA

“North Korea built it in the hopes that when the 2018 Olympic Games kick off, which will be held in South Korea, that they could host a few of the events there,” Mr Cotton said.

“However, Kim Jong-un used it to carry out a pair of Scud missile launches on June 29, 2014.”

T OURISM BOOST

In 2015, the North Korean government announced Wonsan would be part of a plan to build it up as a new tourist hotspot and wanted to attract millions of people to the area.

More than 40 missile tests have taken place in and around the area which is vital to Kim’s strategy for survival, Reuters reported.

The Kim family palace is located next to Songdowon, a popular beach where locals fish and swim.

It is also home to the Songdowon Children’s Camp, which Kim revamped in 2014, which was used to welcome young pioneers from other communist countries.

Songdowon Beach has a foreigners-only area and there is also an international airport ready to welcome tourists to its beaches and the nearby Kumgang Mountain resort.

North Korean girls pictured at the redeveloped Songdowon International Children's Camp in Wonsan, in 2014. The camp, which has been operating for nearly 30 years, was originally intended mainly to deepen relations with friendly countries in the Communist or non-aligned world. Picture: Wong Maye-E/AP

Kim also plans to knock down the existing city structures in Wonsan and turn them into a major financial complex to rival Pyongyang.

Within the airport grounds is a missile testing site, completed last year, which is supported by observation platforms and hangers.

CRAZY OR STRATEGIC?

According to Mr Cotton, it’s crazy North Korea does all these tests at an area they’re trying to develop economically for their people.

“It would be like if the US government converted the area around Disney World into an artillery practice range or something,” he said.

North Korea has used Wonsan and nearby target island to show off its military might.

“I also think it’s just the absolute height of irony that they used a site specifically constructed as a possible venue for Olympic events, meant to foster international co-operation and sportsmanship, as a site to carry out missile tests meant to intimidate the very neighbour with which they were hoping to share these events.”

Mr Cotton said it did however, provide some insight into how North Korea’s leadership views these things.

“It seems in some ways that they view economic development as inseparable from military development,” he said.

“They want to turn Wonsan into a vacation destination for their own people?

“Well okay, then they need to build good roads and a nice airport to get people there, and what do you know — those roads and that airport make it really easy to get troops and equipment there to carry out missile and artillery launch activities.”

-With Reuters

[e-mail]