North Korean hosts ‘undeclared’ base for missiles 165 kilometers northeast of Seoul

The Kumchon-ni missile operating base (Center for Strategic and International Studies)

A new study spotlighting an “undeclared” North Korean missile base that hosts medium-range weapons was released Friday.

The Kumchon-ni (금천리) missile operating base is located within North Korea’s tactical missile belt, in Anbyon-gun (안변군, Anbyon County), Kangwon-do (강원도, Kangwon Province), 75 kilometers north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), 165 kilometers northeast of Seoul and 1,100 kilometers west-northwest of Tokyo, the study released Friday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank’s Beyond Parallel project said.

Although occasionally, and inaccurately, referred to as an “…underground missile storage…” facility, it is a forward missile operating base subordinate to the Korean People’s Army (KPA) Strategic Force (the organization that is responsible for all ballistic missile units).

It is one of the smaller missile operating bases and it likely houses a battalion- or regiment-sized ballistic missile unit that during the early 1990s was reported to have been equipped with the 500-600-kilometer-range Hwasong-6 (Scud C) short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM), the study said.

During 1999, it was confirmed that the unit based at Kumchon-ni was one of the first to be equipped with the then new 1,000-kilometer-range Hwasong-9 (Scud-ER) medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM).

While the Hwasong-6 allowed the missile unit based at Kumchon-ni to strike at almost all of South Korea (with the exception of Cheju-do), the longer-range Hwasong-9 extended that threat envelop to being able to deliver a 750 kilogram warhead to all of South Korea and the southern half of Japan (e.g., Kyushu, Shikoku and a large portion of Honshu)—including many bases used by the U.S. military.

Should the missile unit based at Kumchon-ni be equipped with more recently emerging MRBMs (e.g., Pukkuksong-2/KN-15, etc.) the threat envelop could include all of Japan, including U.S. military bases on Okinawa and beyond.

The Kumchon-ni base facilities appear to provide logistical support and housing for the personnel that operate the nearby Hwangnyong-san early warning radar base, the study said.

Key Findings

• Located 1,100 kilometers west of Tokyo and 165 kilometers northeast of Seoul the Kumchon-ni undeclared ballistic missile operating base houses a battalion- or regiment-sized unit equipped with Hwasong-9 (Scud-ER) medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM).
• Media reports suggest that during wartime the 1,000-kilometer-range Hwasong-9 unit based at Kumchon-ni is tasked with striking targets in the southern half of Japan and, to a lesser degree, throughout South Korea.
• Should the missile unit based at Kumchon-ni be equipped with more recently emerging MRBMs (e.g., Pukkuksong-2/KN-15, etc.) the threat envelop could include all of Japan, including U.S. military bases on Okinawa, and beyond.
• This base is one of approximately 20 undeclared ballistic missile operating bases and one that is reported to be tasked with not only strikes against the southern half of Japan, but is also capable of striking all of South Korea.
• This is the first comprehensive public report detailing the development, organization, and threat posed by the Kumchon-ni missile operating base.
• North Korean missile operating bases would presumably have to be subject to declaration, verification, and dismantlement in any future final and fully verifiable denuclearization deal.

Link to the full study: https://beyondparallel.csis.org/undeclared-north-korea-the-kumchon-ni-missile-operating-base/