SEOUL — A secret, scenic road winds through the mountains and along the rivers for 120 kilometers in North Korea near the Chinese border. But no cars are allowed on this road and few people even know it exists. Why?
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Kim Jong-il gives "on-the-spot guidance" at the Pukjung machine complex in North Pyongyang Province, North Korea in this undated photo released by Korea Central News Agency.
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Defector Han Young-Jin from Pyongyang, who is now working as a reporter for Daily NK, an online publication of the nongovernmental organization "NK Network" in Seoul, said he was one of the 30,000 workers mobilized to build the road during the 1990s.
In an interview, Han said he joined the "Speed War Chargers" (the name given to the road builders) in the spring of 1991 and spent four years working there. According to Han, the 3-meter wide, 120-km one-lane cement road runs from Hwangsan to Changsong counties in North Hamgyong province. Work first began on the project in 1987.
"The road commanded a beautiful view as it was built along the rivers and mountains with a mind to avoid air raids as well," Han said. "But Kim Jong-Il ordered the road be widened to 9 meters to allow two cars." Thus, the second-phase of construction began.
Shortly after the construction work was completed, Kim Il-Sung died. "At the time of Kim's death, Kim Jong-Il was vacationing at his summer villa in Changseong and arrived at his father's villa in Myohyang Mountain in less than an hour and forty minutes drive using this secret road," Han said.
"But Kim Jong-Il complained that because the road had so many curves, he could not come in time to be at his father's deathbed." Thus began the third-phase work — to straighten the road. That took three years of hard labor by the mobilized workers to complete.
The road is at all times by Kim Jong-Il's bodyguard troops. Any intruding government officials are spotted and reported for punishment. According to Han, Kim and his family would board the train in Pyongyang in a time of emergency, get off at Bukshinhyon station in Hyangsan county and drive to Changseong on the secret road.
Kim and his family would then go to Kim's villa at Yaksuri of Changseong, where they would cross into China, underneath the Yalu River. "That nine years of time, huge amount of money and materials, much less the sweat of the people were put into building this road for one man and his family alone, would be mind-boggling for people outside of North Korea. But that's Communist North Korea," said Han.
