By Adrian Blomfield
Satellite research reveals undeclared facility capable of housing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
North Korea has built a secret missile base that could be used to launch a nuclear strike against the United States, according to satellite research.
The undeclared facility is believed to house as many as nine nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), preliminary research by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, has found.
Hidden in a narrow mountain valley 17 miles from the Chinese border, it is one of as many as 20 covert bases that make up North Korea’s clandestine missile belt, a central element of the regime’s growing nuclear deterrent.
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has in recent weeks pledged to accelerate the country’s nuclear programme, a move that analysts partly attribute to US air strikes on Iran in June.
The bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities – plants reportedly built with North Korean help – is said to have reinforced Pyongyang’s determination to strengthen its own deterrent.
Kim Jong-un meets with army officers in Pyongyang on Wednesday
North Korea is estimated to possess 50 nuclear warheads and enough fissile material to build 40 more, according to the latest annual estimate by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which monitors global nuclear developments.
The base near the village of Sinpung-dong has been operational since 2014, but has undergone upgrades, CSIS said.
Missiles stationed there “pose a nuclear threat to east Asia and the continental United States”, the think tank’s report warned.
The absence of visible launchpads is particularly troubling, suggesting the base could house solid-fuel ICBMs capable of being launched from large trucks that can be moved around to evade detection. Unlike liquid-fuelled missiles, solid-fuel weapons can be pre-fuelled, hidden and deployed from dispersed locations – making them far harder to destroy pre-emptively.
Bases such as Sinpung-dong are believed to have been positioned close to the Chinese frontier to diminish the likelihood of a pre-emptive US strike, given the risk of drawing Beijing into a conflict.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have sharpened as Pyongyang strengthens ties with Russia.
Kim is thought to have sent 11,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, raising concerns Moscow may have reciprocated by supplying North Korea with advanced nuclear and missile technology.
In his first term, Donald Trump sought to reset relations with North Korea, meeting Kim three times.
Talks collapsed in 2019, after which the Kim regime resumed missile tests and ended a self-imposed moratorium on long-range launches. According to defectors, one senior official involved in the talks was later arrested and another executed.
Despite the diplomatic setback, Mr Trump has since signalled a willingness to re-engage.
“I get along with him fantastically,” he said in March. “A very smart guy.”
Undeclared missile-operating bases
North Korea
Major US military bases in region
US Bases
Kim said earlier this week that North Korea must grow its nuclear arsenal as he hit out at joint military drills between the US and South Korea.
The North Korean leader said his country will “make a radical and swift change” in the “rapid expansion of nuclearisation” in response to intensifying security risks in the region.
His comments were a pointed riposte to the drills between the US and South Korea, known as the Ulchi Freedom Shield, which started on Monday.
Kim said it was evidence of the two nations intending to “remain most hostile and confrontational” and were “the most obvious manifestation of their will to ignite a war”.
The exercises, which are held annually, will last 11 days and will be similar in scale to those held last year. Half of the field training events will be rescheduled to later in September as part of an effort to ease tensions.
Kim Jong-un has in recent weeks pledged to accelerate the country’s nuclear programme
The Ulchi Freedom Shield is the second of two large-scale exercises held by Seoul every year and will involve 21,000 soldiers – 18,000 of whom are South Korean.
Kim’s comments come days after Lee Jae-Myung, the newly elected South Korean president, said that he would respect the North Korean regime and had “no intention to engage in any hostile acts” as part of efforts to bridge divisions between the North and the South.
Mr Lee also said last week that he would seek to restore the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which aims to reduce border tension between the two countries.
Original source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/08/21/north-korea-builds-secret-military-base-us-nuclear-threat/