N. Korea builds ballistic missile launch pads on moving trains: report

North Korea plans to build ICBM launch pads on trains, a method similar to that used in Russia. / Courtesy of Twitter

By Lee Han-soo

North Korea is building intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch pads on trains, the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Wednesday.

“Technicians from the second economic committee have been building a mobile ICBM launch pad since May,” a North Korean citizen living in Gangwon Province said. “The factory makes six freight trains a month and will be used as ICBM mobile launch pads.”

The trains were customized to withstand missile launches, the source said.

The construction of the mobile missile launch pads comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un emphasized in March the need to diversify the country’s nuclear attack capability.

"North Korea has no other way but to produce such pads as China has suspended the exports of large-scale vehicles capable of handling mobile missile pads," RFA said.

But another North Korean source questioned the effect of the mobile missile pads due to the country’s outdated and unmaintained railroads.