On December 5, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies released several satellite images taken in recent months that show North Korea building a missile base near the Chinese border. Middlebury analysts claim that the activity could either be an expansion of the Yeongjeo-dong long-range missile base seven miles away or a new base. While the...
On November 16, North Korean state media announced the test of a new “ultramodern tactical weapon,” which would provide the country with a “steel wall” of defense. According to an anonymous military source in Seoul, the new weapon is most likely a type of long-range artillery. The source also added that the weapon had begun...
On November 12, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Beyond Parallel released a report showing satellite imagery of one of 13 identified but undeclared North Korean missile operating bases. According to the report, there are an estimated total of 20 such undeclared bases throughout North Korea, which contain short-range to intercontinental ballistic missiles. The...
On October 12, South Korea‘s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced at a parliamentary audit their plan to purchase SM-3 interceptors to counter North Korea’s ballistic missiles. A decision “for something at the SM-3 level” was made during a JCS meeting in September 2017, according to head of the JCS force-buildup planning bureau Major General...
North Korea will reportedly admit inspectors from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to conduct in-country inspections to assess measures taken by Pyongyang to improve the safety of commercial aircraft from North Korea’s ballistic missile launches. North Korea is one of 192 members of the ICAO and is therefore obligated to give prior notice of...
On July 30, U.S. officials familiar with intelligence on North Korea told multiple media outlets that production of at least one Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is underway at the Sanumdong missile factory. The project appears to have begun after President Trump and Chairman Kim met on June 12 in Singapore to discuss denuclearization. The...
On June 12, President Donald Trump of the United States and Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea signed a statement at the Singapore summit which committed both countries to four main objectives: To reset the countries’ bilateral relations To build a peaceful regime on the Korean Peninsula To continue the April 2018 Panmunjom Declaration...
On March 19, South Korean media reported that the ROK Army will deploy a new guided missile unit to counter North Korea’s long-range artillery sites. “The Ministry of National Defense has approved a plan to create an artillery brigade under a ground forces operations command to be inaugurated in October. The plan is to be...
On March 8, the White House announced President Trump had accepted an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to meet for negotiations over its nuclear program. The invitation was conveyed by South Korean officials in a meeting with President Trump, with the meeting scheduled to take place by May. The announcement came as a...
In a nuclear world, nuclear weapons are needed to deter major attacks, but who should possess these instruments of deterrence? Today the challenge of keeping nonnuclear states from going nuclear may be growing, perhaps nowhere quite as much as in northeast Asia...
