North Korea keeps secret base for ICBMs, report says

SEOUL, May 17 (UPI) -- North Korea could be maintaining a base for its intercontinental ballistic missiles in a north-central region of the country.

Satellite images from military journal Jane's Defense Weekly showed Pyongyang has an advanced base where the country's KN-08 long-range rockets are kept, South Korean news network Channel A reported Tuesday.

The area known as Yongrim in North Korea's Jagang Province is a place more than a thousand meters above sea level surrounded by rugged mountain peaks.

The location is home to a North Korean underground hangar where Pyongyang most likely keeps KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The weapons could be fired from three different passageways, according to the report.

The images also indicated two factories are nearby where road mobile launchers are being manufactured.

The hangar entrance faces north, and on the south side S-75 surface-to-air missiles have been installed.

South Korean military officials have continued to capture images of North Korea's KN-08 ICBMs. At about three to four locations along the China-North Korea border, a North Korean brigade affiliated with a strategic military unit has been positioned, the South's officials say.

Yang Uk, a senior fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said that the moves could be being made to increase Pyongyang's national security as they are tracked by China and Russia air defense surveillance.

Seoul is also developing defense measures.

South Korea's navy has begun full-scale assembly operations on the 3,000-ton heavy attack submarine Jangbogo-III, local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun reported Tuesday.

The Jangbogo-III can launch ballistic missiles. The submarine is to be deployed by 2020.