Mick Hartley

A North Korean missile base close to its border with China has been identified in new satellite images. The proximity to the border serves as a useful deterrent against any possible attack, given the possibility of a stray missile landing in Chinese territory.

North Korea has built a missile base close to its border with China that is capable of storing weapons with the range to strike the United States, satellite images show.

A report by a Washington think tank describes in detail the features of the Hoejung-ni base, whose reinforced underground bunkers are just 16 miles from the Chinese border. It quotes “informed sources”, likely to be in US intelligence, who believe that Pyongyang’s most powerful weapons, potentially capable of carrying nuclear warheads, are to be deployed at the base.

“The Hoejung-ni missile operating base will, according to informed sources, likely house a regiment-sized unit equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM),” says the report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on its North Korea website, Beyond Parallel.

“When this occurs, the unit will represent a vital component of what is presumed to be North Korea’s evolving ballistic missile strategy, expanding existing strategic-level deterrence and strike capabilities.”

Hoejung-ni’s entrances are disguised with trees and other vegetation. The base consists of a large underground bunker at least 375 metres long and two drive-through “hardened missile checkout facilities”, large shelters reinforced by layers of concrete and soil and used for fuelling, arming and maintaining weapons….

Rather than being fired from deeply buried silos, North Korea’s ballistic missiles are designed to be loaded on to vehicles known as transporter-erector-launchers, and quickly dispersed across a wide area, making it more difficult for an enemy to locate and destroy them.

Apart from heavy physical barriers, the base has another form of protection, its proximity to China. US and South Korean commanders would hesitate to use, for example, tactical nuclear weapons against such a site, for fear that they might stray into Chinese territory, potentially drawing Beijing into a conflict.

According to the report, construction at Hoejung-ni first began 20 years ago, and it is one of 20 such bases which have never been acknowledged by Pyongyang. It is evidently known to US intelligence, however. Joseph Bermudez, lead author of the CSIS report, has an intelligence background.

The revelations come at a moment when anxiety is mounting about North Korea’s missile programme and its intentions for the future. Already North Korea has fired more missiles in 2022 than in all of last year.

The nine tests have included medium and short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and hypersonic ballistic missiles whose high speed and manoeuvrability makes it difficult to intercept them with conventional missile defence shields. Last week’s test of an intermediate range missile was from Chagang province, where Hoejung-ni is located.

Pyongyang still abides by a voluntary moratorium on tests of nuclear warheads and ICBMs. However, last month it hinted that this may soon be abandoned, a move that would dramatically increase international tensions and risk a new nuclear crisis in East Asia.

I wonder how the Chinese feel about this. Or if they even knew before now.