North Korea has built secret missile base near China, says think-tank

SEOUL – North Korea has quietly built and operated a sprawling long-range missile base near the Chinese border that stores Mr Kim Jong Un’s most advanced strategic weapons, demonstrating the regime’s ongoing efforts to advance its nuclear strike capabilities, a think-tank said. 

The base in Sinpung, North Pyongan province, located 27km from the border with China, likely houses a brigade-size 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 Aug 20.

“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 said, citing satellite imagery. 

South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it is closely monitoring North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities, without elaborating.

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.

The newly revealed missile base highlights the regime’s escalating nuclear threat and strategic intent.

It also underscores a stark reality that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is larger, more dispersed and more survivable than many outside assessments assume.

It signals Pyongyang’s shift towards rapid-launch capabilities that complicate US pre-emptive strike options.

Its location near China’s border further shields it from attack, raising geopolitical stakes for Washington and Beijing alike.

With construction continuing and North Korea emboldened by real-world weapons experience in Ukraine, this discovery signals that Mr Kim’s nuclear ambitions are both growing and increasingly difficult to deter.

The revelation comes just days after

the North Korean leader called for a “rapid expansion”

of his country’s nuclear weapons programme, ramping up tensions just as the US and South Korea began joint military drills that Pyongyang views as a prelude to war.  

US President Donald Trump and Mr Kim met in person three times during the US President’s first term, but those interactions failed to convince Mr Kim to curb the development of his nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea has since rebuffed the idea of sitting down with the US again and has emerged as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, supporting his war on Ukraine.

Mr Kim said earlier this week that the only way to defend the country’s security is to “make enemies afraid” of North Korea, and that its capabilities will be “expressed through practical actions”. BLOOMBERG