Other name: Factory No. 297, No. 297 Research Institute, Factory No. 279, No. 279 Research Institute
Location: Sŏg'am-ri (石岩里), P'yŏng'wŏn-kun (平原郡), South P'yŏng'an Province (平安南道), North Korea [Note: Factory No. 279 is reportedly located near the No. 398 Research Institute.]
Subordinate to: Nuclear Chemical Defense Bureau (核化學防衛局), General Staff Department (人民軍總參謀部), Ministry of People's Armed Forces (人民武力部)
Primary Function: Production of protective masks, protective suits, decontamination equipment, and antidotes for CW and radiation exposure
Description: The No. 279 Factory reportedly produces equipment developed by the No. 398 Research Institute, which is located nearby. Defector Choe Ju Hwal has testified that a No. 297 [sic] Factory [among others] produces poison gas including nerve gas, blister gas, among others. However, in a subsequent interview, Choe admitted that he did not work directly with WMD or WMD-related tasks, and that he has no direct information about North Korea's WMD or ballistic missile programs.
Another defector, Yi Chung Kuk, has diagrammed the locations of Factory No. 279 and the No. 398 Research Institute as below in the "Sŏg'am-ri Recruit Training Center Facilities." The 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion (第18核化學防衛大隊)--of which Yi Chung Kuk was formerly a member in the early 1990s--is also located nearby the aforementioned facilities.
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1. Sŏg'am-ri Reservoir
2. Direction of P'yŏng'wŏn
3. Mobile repair facility area
4. Factory No. 279
5. 1st Company, 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion
6. 4th Company, 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion
7. 5th Company, 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion
8. Fuel storage, garage
9. Tunnel
10. Ordinance warehouse
11. Chemical storage
12. 3rd Company, 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion
13. 6th Company, 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion, and education hall
14. 2nd Company, 18th Nuclear Chemical Defense Battalion
15. Vehicle repair facility
16. Mess hall
17. Command section
18. Communications facility
19. Dispensary
20. Food warehouse
21. Exercise grounds
22. Guardhouse
23. Institute No. 398
24. Windbreak trees
25. Sŏg'am-ri, P'yŏng'wŏn county, South P'yŏng'an Province
26. Windbreak trees
[Note: 27 is not numbered, but is referred to by the arrow in the lower right-hand corner (順安), the direction of Sun'an.]
28. Chemical complex
29. Sŏg'am-ri, Recruit Training Center Facilities
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Updated April 2003 |
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Key Sources:
Yi Ch'ung Kuk, "Assignment to Antinuclear/Antiatomic Analysis Team," in the book "Kim Chong-il's Nuclear Weapons and Army," Kin Seinichi no Kaku to Guntai in Japanese, 21 September 1994, pp. 101-10; Chang Chun Ik, Pukhan Haek-Missile Chŏnjaeng (Seoul: Sŏmundang, 1999), pp. 359-360; Sŏn Chong Ku, "Puk Haekhwahakpang'wiguk: Haeksaenghwahangmugi Ch'ongjihwi," Segye Ilbo, 21 May 1997, p. 17, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr>; interview with Ch'oe Ju Hwal by CNS analyst Daniel A. Pinkston, 9 April 2001, Seoul; Prepared statement by Ju-Hwal Choi, former official, Minister of the People's Army, North Korea, "North Korean Mass Destruction Weapons," hearing on North Korean missile proliferation, before the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, Committee on Governmental Affairs, US Senate, 21 October 1997, <http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1997_h/s971021choi.htm>.
