First-time visitors to South Korea will be amazed by the dense maze of high-rise apartments shooting up in and around Seoul. The bewildering sensory overload that some of our readers may have experienced (and still live with) may be partially explained when finding out that the very apartment serves more than one purpose of providing roof over one’s head – absorbing shells and delaying the advancing North Korean army to be precise. It is often very easy to forget how militarized South Korea is. Yet many South Koreans complain about the tiny coffin-space of an apartment they live in….
From TodayHumor:
Ilsan?
Many New (satellite) Cities surround Seoul. Good traffic and living environment~
Most of the New Cities surround Seoul. But did you guy know that these cities were designed for strategic value? In particular Ilsan was officially recognized as such. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) allegedly has intervened quite a lot in the design of the urban space and the apartment design itself.
It is for, well duh, the defence of Seoul. For those of you who have already served in the army would all know, if North Korea invades, then the first thing they have to do is occupy Seoul. All the national infrastructure are connected to Seoul and vice versa, so once the DPRK army occupied Seoul, they have the entire transport network under their control, which gives them substantial advantage in conducing war.
The shortest path to Seoul is by crossing the Imjin River and Han River estuaries, and advancing through Ilsan. That means Ilsan is the main target of the North Korean military. Well, maybe not, this is simply an example. However, the MoD is quite heavily involved with the arrangement of the apartment complex construction, so this is not entirely unfounded.
In any case, there are TONS of apartments in Ilsan. Apartment here, apartment there…. and they are MASSIVE. A lot of them are ㄷ-shaped… Again, not all.. -_-
This is an ideal place for self-propelled artillary. Fire a shot at the advancing army and before the counter-attack arrives, they will run into the nearest apartment. And the apartments will serve provide safety from the return-fire. This would provide an ideal defensive environment. Fire and hide, fire and hide. The advancing army will really go mental over this.
Imagine keep being shelled even if you returned fire. North Korea’s army’s shells are mostly not fuel-air shells but anti-personnel shells so shooting at those apartment blocks will not accomplish jack. That is why the apartments are ideal ‘wall’.
And even if the DPRK army managed to enter the city, the entire city is maze-like. The armored divisions will experience quite a difficult time navigating through the block after block of apartments. By then the Global-Hawk will be hovering over their heads and the artillery based in south of the Han river will be shelling them.
By then the 3 million-strong reserved army would be fully mobilized. And several thousands of them will be holed up in the city armed with K-2, grenades, anti-armor guns – that will show the DPRK army the meaning of Stalingrad. But the civilians still trapped inside will probably be all killed… ㅠㅠ
And the last resort would be to blow up all the apartment blocks. Then the arterial roads to Seoul will be entirely blocked. The armored and artillery divisions will have to make big detours to enter Seoul. But other New Cities are exactly like that. That is why there are so many apartments in the New Cities. The main purpose, of course, is for residential and sales but the secondary purpose is for defensive parameter, that is what I am getting at.
In other word, the MoD’s Apartgrad Operation!
Comments from TodayHumor:
반달루:
Shush!
임하늘:
Is this where the poster got arrested for leaking the military confidential information?
ZP:
Whether missile or nuke or biochem weapon, Seoul will be the first to be bombed. Dead Serious.
17cm:
This is true. I would think it’s actually a common knowledge to many.. The oversized roads in Changwon is actually meant to be emergency runway for jet planes.
귀신같은홈런:
And if they build warehouse stores full of food and electric appliances, the North Korean army is expected to be delayed by full 2 days. That’s why they authorized the construction of that department store.
봄향기:
Here, I found the news article ke ke (it reads ‘The Korean Land Corporation countered the allegation raised by an opposition MP that Ilsan was designed EXCLUSIVELY for defensive purpose. However, they admitted that some defensive considerations were factored in designing the city. The Land Corporation argued that since the City of Ilsan falls within the defensive parameter and military-operational area, the principles were applied within ‘legally permissible boundary’, and added ‘not constructed out of purely defense aim’)
리쉬점부탁:
1 It’s not that they build the New Cities FOR defensive only, but that they would serve some defensive function, right? Since they are building those apartments, they may as well be designed in a way effective for defense as well.
드래둔:
Well, I cannot go into details… but I may add that the so-called Apartgrad defensive operation is ‘quite plausible’ claim….
김하나:
Am I the only one having a laugh over this…? Am I the only one…?
총:
ke ke ke ke, what, you guys all from Seoul? The roads in Paju that suddenly narrows and have boulders on both sides are there to block the advancing army. Like the guy above says, the big billboards along the road are also for blocking the road. Ilsan is mostly vertical rock-face so it’s alright. Seoul will be the first to be bombed anyhow. But my house is so close to the 9th Division HQ, so I’m quite scared that we may get shelled…. It’s only 10minute running distance from my house to the 9th DIV HQ…. Dammit, Poongdong [district of Ilsan].
거참..:
I remember watching when the Defense Minister actually admitted about this ON TV and it caused quite a lot of fuss the next day… Isn’t this already a common knowledge? Especially Uijeongbu and Ilsan were designed for defensive purpose for sure. That was a big news, so I am not sure why people don’t believe this old news now…. – -a In fact back then, people complained about how ‘he really should not have admitted that so openly….’ ke ke ke. And you guys keep saying ‘shelling Seoul’, ‘shelling Seoul’ but shelling Seoul directly is NOT easy. Unless they can curve the shells somehow….. – -;;
Entracte:
I study administration and we actually learn this during urban planning ke ke. New Cities (Ilsan especially), Uijeongbu, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Jamsil… Other than , Seoul in nearly all entirety is designed with the military purpose in mind. Well, not ENTIRELY for military purpose but it certainly has military functions.
반달루:
Don’t you guys know about the subway lines and underground tunnels;;;
고단백질:
By the way, come what may but from the perspective of North Korea, isn’t it better to just strike Ulsan..? If they blow up all the petrochemical factories there…
우리집다롱아:
All the bridges along the Han River are fitted so that it could be taken down in case of war. This was in a way for military purpose
구팔탄생여인:
‘unintelligible gibberish’ I live in an apartment in Paju ‘unintelligible gibberish’ So my house is for military, *wail*. I was so happy that I got so many thumbs-up yesterday but what is this madness *sob*. Ok, so Paju is the northernmost city in South Korea and the average temperature is low and from where I live the Unification Observatory is only 40 minutes away, so if the news of war is up, I am already dead~* Save me pleaseeee ㅛㅛㅛ
화학:
Dammit, you guys are not supposed to talking about this…… or so I thought until I read the article… well, this is actually a common knowledge ke ke ke Ah….. I am sooo tempted to talk about the military operations I had to do in Ilsan……
광대크러스티:
Why are you yapping about unnecessarily? If someone rat you out for leaking security information, will you be sorry then? Just delete this.
sau1098:
I have been living in Ilsan for 14 years….
