ALBAWABA - A French Newspaper reported that Hezbollah has been developing underground tunnels in Lebanon since the 1980s, with the help of North Korea.
Libération uncovered that North Korea had helped Hezbollah to build an underground defense system in anticipation of an Israeli invasion. According to the daily newspaper, the tunnels in Lebanon are way more developed than the ones created by Hamas in Gaza.
The French newspaper further claimed that the North Korea-developed tunnels extend hundreds of kilometers long and have branches that are likely to reach Israel and possibly Syria.
Libération reported that the Palestinian groups which left for Lebanon in the early 1960s started digging when they were carrying out missile attacks and incursions into northern Israel. It added that, later on, Hezbollah took over the task, according to General Olivier Basso, assistant researcher at the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School and head of the Previous contact with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Did North Korea help Hezbollah build tunnels in Lebanon?
Israel's "Alma" Research Center opened an investigation, based on open sources, and based it on a 2021 report called "The Land of Tunnels."
According to Alma's researchers, Hezbollah, after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, created a defensive plan to confront the Israeli invasion, which includes dozens of operation centers and underground networks and tunnels linking important centers in Beirut, Al Bekaa to the South of Lebanon.
Tal Perry, one of Alma’s directors, confirmed to The Times of Israel last January that "there is evidence that North Korea, which has historical experience in digging tunnels in mountainous and rocky areas, helped Hezbollah" in creating underground tunnels.
In Lebanon, the group has established civilian companies that are reportedly said to be a facade to hide the real reason behind the combines which are digging tunnels.
The report further detailed that earlier the United States had already imposed sanctions on the Lebanese environmental non-governmental organization "Greens Without Borders" on charges of covering up the construction of underground warehouses and ammunition storage tunnels.
Nonetheless, Israel claimed in 2018 to find 6 "attack tunnels" about 40 meters deep below the Blue Line that represents the border with Lebanon. It allegedly said that the tunnels are hundreds of meters long and have not yet reached the surface. Olivier Basso said: "I believe their location was determined by acoustic sensors and confirmed that digging them requires very complex work over several weeks."
