An SA-5 surface-to-air missile passes in review at a military parade marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 15, 2012.YONHAP
North Korea appears to be expanding an air defense missile base on its east coast and is tearing down a village of more than 100 houses to make room, the specialist outlet NK Pro reported Wednesday.
The base sits beside Lake Tongjong, a beach lagoon in Thongchon County, Kangwon Province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the inter-Korean border. NK Pro, the subscription service of NK News, based its account on commercial satellite imagery from Planet Labs.
Work began in July. The imagery shows new infrastructure going up next to the existing missile launch positions, along with new roads running in from a nearby highway and around the lagoon.
Crews are also dredging a channel to open the lagoon to the sea, and a dock has been built at the north end of the beach. NK Pro said that combination points to a possible naval element in the project.
The village being cleared lies immediately north of the base. More houses have come down in the larger town to the south to make way for the new roads. About 20 apartment buildings have gone up quickly to the west since early July, most likely for residents displaced by the demolitions. Hotels and new facilities at the nearby Jasan Bathing Beach were still standing in imagery taken Aug. 27.
More apartments, along with new factories and a hospital, are under construction on the main road through the town of Thongchon under North Korea's "20×10" regional development program. Launched in 2024, the program calls for modern factories in 20 cities and counties every year for a decade, and has since widened to cover hospitals as well.
Experts told NK Pro the base appears to hold SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, a long-range Soviet system also designated the S-200 and developed more than 60 years ago. Launch positions were first laid out between 2017 and 2018, and missiles were visible on their launchers by 2022. The site also has radars, garages and the large trailers used to move missiles and launchers.
People watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's ICBM at a train station in Seoul, on March 25, 2022. North Korea said Friday it test-fired its biggest-yet intercontinental ballistic missile under the orders of leader Kim Jong-un, who vowed to expand the North's "nuclear war deterrent" while preparing for a "longstanding confrontation" with the United States.AP/YONHAP
The missiles sit in the open. Joost Oliemans, a weapons researcher who studies the North Korean military, told NK Pro they have "next to no survivability during conflict," pointing to recent U.S. strikes that destroyed Iranian SA-5 installations. He has previously described the system as thoroughly outdated.
An SA-5 fired by the North in 2022 crossed south of the Northern Limit Line and came down in waters off Sokcho on the east coast.
Because the missiles are exposed and aging, the expansion may end with newer weapons installed in their place, according to NK Pro. North Korea has spent recent years developing and testing its Pyoljji series of short- and long-range surface-to-air missiles, often fired from mobile tube launchers.
Further up the same coast, at Munchon, North Korea is building what would be its first modern naval base, a project NK Pro reported last month had restarted after years of delay.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told the Ninth Workers' Party Congress in February that the country would bring all its military bases up to a common standard over the next five years.
BY JUNG SI-NAE [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
