New N.Korean Missile Base Spotted

A U.S. think tank has spotted a hitherto unknown North Korean missile base in Yusang-ri in South Pyongan Province.

In a report last Thursday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Yusang-ri base might be an intercontinental ballistic missile storage facility. The facility was discovered first by South Korean and U.S. authorities a few years ago, but no details were available.

The report on the website Beyond Parallel analyzes the Yusang-ri base within North Korea's missile belt in South Pyongan Province with the help of satellite data.

It is the fourth North Korean missile base the website has exposed after Sakkanmol, Sino-ri, and Sangnam-ri since last November.

According to the report, the Yusang-ri base "sits 63 kilometers northeast of Pyongyang, 150 kilometers north of the demilitarized zone, [and] 220 kilometers northeast of Seoul."

A brigade-size or larger unit is deployed there, and six buildings, including an underground missile storage facility, a support facility, and a housing unit, have been built since 2003.

The base "has been reported to house either the Hwasong-13 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that has not yet been tested, or the Hwasong-14 (tested on July 4 and July 28, 2017) or Hwasong-15 ICBMs (tested on November 29, 2017)."

Victor Cha of the institute told the New York Times, "They've hollowed out an entire mountain." "A number of clues, including 16 years of satellite imagery, strongly suggested that the base was intended for long-range missiles," the daily quoted him as saying.

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