Map of the known missile bases in North Korea.
Posted on 08/28/2006 6:16:01 AM PDT by jdm
HONG KONG ¯ North Korea is operating 18 missile bases and 10 research and development facilities, and is increasingly shipping its weapons by air to avoid detection, a military journal and news agency reported yesterday.
Nine missile bases have been constructed since 1994, while North Korea has deployed 1,200 Rodong and Scud missiles, which target all of South Korea, Defense International reported yesterday in its September issue. The security journal specializes in defense issues in the Northeast Asian region.
The journal, citing intelligence data from Taiwan and the United States, said that prior to 1994 only three missile bases had been built.
The publication also detailed the locations of some of the bases and their functions.
Reportedly, nine mobile missile pads and some underground launching facilities are at the North's headquarters for its missile forces, in Pyong an province.
The journal also reported that one missile base, located in Hamgyong province, had Rodong and Taepodong missiles specifically to target all of Japan.
Another base in Gangwon province was 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the inter-Korean border.
Meanwhile, North Korea has increasingly used air routes to deliver its missiles and related parts to buyers faster and without detection, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, part of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, said in a report released earlier this month, citing unidentified sources.
According to the report, released by Yonhap News Agency, Pyongyang has been sending out weapons shipments in pieces in a bid to avoid detection, with help from private Russian firms.
Earlier this month, a U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the JoongAng Ilbo that China and another country in the region had refused the use of their air space to planes suspected of carrying North Korean missile parts out of the North, which was a request made by Washington.
In response to a North Korean missile salvo last month, a UN resolution was adopted seeking limited sanctions on the North related to its transfer of its missile technology.
Paging Tomahawk missiles. Paging B-2 bombers. Paging JDAMs.
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