Secret missile sites? US report on suspicious facilities in North Korea raises dispute

A Digital Globe satellite image taken on March 29 shows what the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies' Beyond Parallel project claims is an undeclared missile operating base at Sakkanmol, North Korea. / Reuters-Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

• Published Nov 13, 2018 5:07 PM KST
• Updated Nov 13, 2018 5:36 PM KST

Cheong Wa Dae says bases do not require declaration from NK

By Lee Min-hyung

Concerns have been raised over whether North Korea has engaged in a “great deception” over undeclared missile facilities, after a U.S. think tank claimed in a report that it had identified the locations of 13 out of 20 secret missile bases.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Security (CSIS) said Monday the facilities were for dispersing mobile launchers with ballistic missiles.

One of the bases located in Sakkanmol, about 137 kilometers northwest of Seoul, is particularly cited as a huge threat, as it is the closest to the inter-Korean border and appears to be “active and being reasonably well-maintained,” the report said.

The report comes at a critical juncture, as Washington and Pyongyang have shown few signs of resolving their months-long stalled denuclearization dialogue following the historic June 12 summit in Singapore between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

Even if both sides expressed their willingness to hold the second summit sometime in the near future, the two sides have failed to fine-tune details for the event in a series of recent working- and high-level talks.

With the revelation of the undeclared missile bases making headlines here and abroad, Cheong Wa Dae shrugged off concerns regarding them.

The presidential office said Tuesday that intelligence agencies in Seoul and Washington were already aware of their existence.

“The source of the CSIS report is civilian satellite images, but the intelligence agencies have kept a close eye on the facilities in a much more detailed way using military satellites,” presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a media briefing.

Kim went on to counter arguments from some U.S. media outlets that called the existence of the facilities “a great deception” by the North in relation to its pledge for denuclearization.

The presidential spokesman said the Sakkanmol base was designed to launch short-range missiles and has nothing to do with inter-continental ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, both of which are seen as a potential threat to the U.S.

Cheong Wa Dae also pointed out that the reported “undeclared bases” do not require declarations from the North, as it did not reach any agreement over scrapping the bases.

“North Korea never promised to dismantle these missile bases, nor has it ever signed any agreements to abolish them,” Kim said.

“The existence of such bases shows that Washington and Pyongyang need to carry out negotiations as soon as possible,” Kim noted, adding to remove such potential threats, the two sides needed to hold talks in the near future.

Asked if short-range missile facilities such as Sakkanmol had anything to do with the North's pledge for complete denuclearization, he said, “We do not think that Sakkanmol is directly linked to nuclear facilities in North Korea.”

The Ministry of National Defense said the military authorities in Seoul and Washington were keeping a close watch on the facilities.

“The allies are taking a close look at the reported bases,” spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said in a briefing Wednesday without elaborating further.