Satellite images reveal North Korea is building a giant facility which could hold nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States
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Thomas Colson
May 7, 2020, 18:17 IST
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Satellite imagery suggests North Korea is building a new facility near Pyongyang Airport large enough to store all of its nuclear missiles.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank say that the facility, 17 miles north-west of Pyongyang is "nearing completion" and "is almost certainly related to North Korea's expanding ballistic missiles program."
The facility is large enough to hold North Korea's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of hitting the United States.
The development comes after talks between Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, and Donald Trump, the US president, broke down last year.
North Korea has almost completed construction of a giant facility large enough to hold nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States, according to a new analysis of satellite photography.
One building within the facility "is large enough to accommodate an elevated Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile and, therefore, the entirety of North Korea's known ballistic missile variants," the report states.
CSIS suggests the facility is located 11 miles north-west of Pyongyang and features an underground storage facility large enough to house all known North Korean ballistic missiles as well as their support vehicles. The site's existence had not previously been disclosed.
It also features an "unusually large" covered rail terminal, which could be used to transport missiles and supporting equipment, and interconnected buildings designed for drive-through access, the report states.
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The site is also relatively close to ballistic component manufacturing plants near Pyongyang.
"Taken as a whole, these characteristics suggest that this facility is likely designed to support ballistic missile operations and for the interim is identified as the Sil-li (신리) Ballistic Missile Support Facility," said Joseph Bermudez, the report's author.
"As such, it is another component of the North Korean ballistic missile infrastructure that has been undergoing both modernization and expansion during the past 10 years."
Trump was said to have handed Kim Jong Un a piece of paper which included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.
A lunch between the two leaders was subsequently cancelled, and a North Korean official subsequently accused the US of issuing "gangster-like" demands, heralding a significant cooling in relations since.
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