North Korea has built a “secret” military base near its border with China, which might house Pyongyang’s newest long-range ballistic missiles, new research showed.
The “undeclared” Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base lies about 27km from the Chinese frontier, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published on Wednesday.
The facility likely houses six to nine nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles and their launchers, the study said, adding that the weapons “pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States.”
Photo: KCNA via KNS, AFP
North Korea has ramped up its nuclear weapons program since a failed summit with the US in 2019, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently called for the “rapid expansion” of the nation’s nuclear capabilities.
The base is one of about “15 to 20 ballistic missile bases, maintenance, support, missile storage and warhead storage facilities which North Korea has never declared,” the report said.
The facility is “not known to have been the subject of any denuclearization negotiations previously conducted between the United States and North Korea,” it added.
The launchers and missiles could leave the base in times of crisis or war, link up with special units and conduct harder-to-detect launches from other parts of the country, the CSIS said.
The base, along with others, “represent the primary components of what is presumed to be North Korea’s evolving ballistic missile strategy, and its expanding strategic-level nuclear deterrence and strike capabilities,” the report said.
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