By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea is building military facilities on a border island in the West Sea that defense authorities believe will house 122-millimeter multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).
Kim Min-seok, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense, said at a regular press briefing, Tuesday, that the North is building several bunker-shaped camps on Gal Island located just 4.5 kilometers away from the South’s Yeonpyeong Island.
“We understand that the North is still constructing them,” he said.
“The ministry is paying keen attention to Pyongyang’s actions there including the deployment of weapons. This is because such a base will pose a severe threat to defense operations of the South Korean military, considering the location of Gal Island and the distance between Yeonpyeong Island and the Northern Limit Line (NLL).”
The NLL is the de-facto inter-Korean western sea border, and the North Korean island is located just above it.
The analysis by the military authorities concluded that the isolated state would either deploy 122-mm MLRS or use it as an observation post to conduct surveillance on South Korean warships.
In November 2010, the repressive state used MLRS with a range of about 20 kilometers when it launched an attack on Yeonpyeong Island, killing two Marines and two civilians, and wounding more than a dozen other people.
If the North completes the construction of the camps for the rocket launchers, tension in the areas will be further heightened with a serious threat to marine forces on Yeonpyeong Island as well as South Korean guided-missile patrol boats that carry out coastal patrol missions near the NLL.
The regime has raised the level of provocation by claiming it will fire at South Korean vessels that violate its territorial waters.
Pyongyang does not recognize the NLL and has demanded that the line be drawn farther south. The U.S.-led United Nations Command drew the border after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire.
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