North Korea has quietly built and operated a sprawling long-range missile base near the Chinese border that stores Kim Jong-un’s most advanced strategic weapons, showing Pyongyang’s ongoing efforts to advance its nuclear strike capabilities, a think tank said.
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The base in Sinpung, North Pyongan province, located 27km (17 miles) from the border with China, likely houses a brigade-sized unit equipped with six to nine nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles and their mobile launchers, a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies showed on Wednesday. “These missiles pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States,” the report said.
“Current assessments are that during times of crisis or war, these launchers and missiles will exit the base, meet special warhead storage, transportation units, and conduct launch operations from dispersed pre-surveyed sites,” the report added, citing satellite imagery.
Construction of the base began around 2004 and facilities were mostly built and operational by 2014, the report said, adding that the complex appears to have been continuously developed since.
South Korea’s defence ministry said it is closely monitoring North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities, without elaborating.
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The newly revealed missile base highlights Pyongyang’s escalating nuclear threat and strategic intent. It also underscores a stark reality that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal may be larger, more dispersed, and more survivable than widely assumed.