While the North Korean Nuclear Button Cools, the Threat of the Underground Lingers

[TomSea]

While the North Korean Nuclear Button Cools, the Threat of the Underground Lingers
Daphné Richemond-Barak and John Spencer | August 31, 2018

Efforts from both sides may not suffice to thaw tensions between the United States and North Korea. The fragile reconciliation can be put in jeopardy at any time if a formal end to the Korean War is not declared or if denuclearization turns into an empty promise. In the midst of this uncertainty, the threat of war—and particularly of underground war—lingers on the Korean peninsula. North Korea possesses cross-border tunnels reaching beyond the demilitarized zone and into the territory of South Korea. Although the exact number of tunnels remains unknown, and in spite of the fact that they have never been used, these cross-border tunnels continue to pose a threat to South Korea’s national security.

From Mosul to Seoul, tunnel warfare—an important battlefield tactic throughout much of the history of armed conflict—has re-emerged as a threat to modern armies. Nonstate actors increasingly find this ancient form of warfare appealing to counter the once-unimaginable satellite imagery, aerial reconnaissance and strike capabilities of military powers like the United States, Russia, and South Korea. In just a short time, the practice of underground warfare has become part and parcel of contemporary conflicts, with tunnels and subterranean hideouts featured in Afghanistan, Mali, Libya, Gaza, and Yemen. Most recently, US-backed security forces discovered extensive use of tunnels by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Underground tunnels and structures serve as equalizers for belligerents with lesser military capabilities, offering invisibility and stealth where the movement of combatants and war materiel would otherwise be easily detected by advanced surveillance. As such, it has become a choice tactic for nonstate groups comparatively weaker than their tech-savvy adversaries.

Read more at: https://mwi.usma.edu/north-korean-nuclear-button-cools-threat-underground-lingers/