North Korea appears to have built rocket launcher facilities near DMZ
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Satellite surveillance has detected 21 newly constructed elongated facilities at North Korean bases, potentially used for the storage of rocket launchers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- North Korea has built 21 long buildings near the DMZ likely for storing and maintaining multiple rocket launchers and transporter erector launchers.
- These new facilities are located about 50km from Seoul, south of Kaesong and north of the Han River.
- Satellite analysts say this expansion near the DMZ is a significant military upgrade, though no launchers were directly seen in images.
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SEOUL – North Korea appears to have built multiple storage and maintenance facilities for multiple rocket launchers near the inter-Korean border, according to a report based on commercial satellite imagery.
The US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on July 17 that satellite images taken between 2023 and 2025 showed 21 elongated buildings, each about 52m long, built at small North Korean military bases south of Kaesong and north of the Han River.
The sites are located about 50km from Seoul in a straight line, the report said.
According to RFA, the buildings have high ceilings, long and narrow layouts, and roads to allow vehicles to enter from both ends. Such features could make the buildings suitable for storing or maintaining transporter erector launchers, or TELs, and multiple rocket launcher systems. Offices and other support facilities also appear to be attached to them.
However, no TELs or multiple rocket launchers were directly visible in the satellite images.
Jacob Bogle, a satellite imagery analyst, told RFA that North Korea had been quietly expanding facilities related to multiple rocket launchers.
“These structures are only part of improvements to the DMZ area, but they are among the most potent,” he said.
The DMZ, or demilitarised zone, was set up under the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. The roughly 250km long and 4km wide buffer zone surrounds the military demarcation line, the de facto border between the two Koreas. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
