PYONGYANG, North Korea, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Construction on a North Korean missile base capable of handling improved intercontinental ballistic missiles is complete, South Korean officials said Monday.
The Dongchang-ri base, the largest in the Communist country, had been under construction for years on the country's west coast, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported. The site is reported to be 125 miles northwest of Pyongyang and just 44 miles from North Korea's main nuclear facility in Yongbyon.
Officials said the new base is for missiles with a range of at least 3,107 miles, which would further raise global concerns about the North's capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, the report said.
"The construction is as good as finished," one South Korean official told Yonhap. "The necessary facilities are all there." Another official told the news agency North Korea has already been testing missile parts such as boosters at the site.
Analysts said the Dongchang-ri base is about three times larger than the east coast Musudan-ri site from where, North Korean claimed it had fired a long-range rocket in April to launch a satellite into space. That launch was followed a month later by a nuclear test, the country's second in three years, which earned worldwide condemnation and tougher U.N. sanctions.
