North Korea has built a new long-range missile base with launchpads disguised as golf course features, satellite imagery analysis suggests, following similar construction ahead of missile tests at other sites around the capital in recent years.

The newest base does not appear to have been used for such a test yet, but the DPRK leader’s sister warned earlier this week that Pyongyang may “escalate” nuclear weapon demonstrations soon.

NK Pro first identified the new site in Ryokpho district of southern Pyongyang as a potential missile launch complex, and multiple experts confirmed it is likely meant for long-range missiles. It is located next to a ruling Kim family mansion compound that was demolished last year.

The Open Source Team at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute told NK Pro that workers appeared to lay concrete across the valley site last summer to help facilitate heavy launch vehicles, before covering the ground with grass, circular putting green-like areas and even sandtraps to make it look like a golf course.

A building was also built nearby that is large enough to house multiple intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) transporter erector launch vehicles (TELs), according to analysis of Planet Labs and Airbus satellite imagery by Jeffrey Lewis, Sam Lair and Michael Duitsman.

The structure is around 36 meters tall (118 feet), making it large enough to serve as a “check-out facility” where technicians can stand the missiles up for inspections, Lair said.

He added that the building is built into a hillside to serve as a protective berm, indicating it is intended for storing live missiles and thus “more likely to be an operational site” for ICBMs or intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), instead of only a test launch site.

“The dimensions of the bermed storage annex (around 30 by 18 meters) are about as large as part of the March 16 Factory where they fit four Hwasong-18 ICBM TELs,” Lair said, referring to a factory in Phyongsong where Kim Jong Un was last seen inspecting TEL manufacturing last September. 

The other half of the new Ryokpho building featuring a blue roof, in front of the brown-roofed storage annex but with less berm protection, is even larger at around 50 by 18 meters.

North Korea’s Hwasong-19 solid-fuel ICBM TEL is around 30 meters long (98 feet) and the Hwasong-18 and hypersonic IRBM TELs are shorter, meaning all these missiles could theoretically be stored in the building.

The Open Source Team pointed out that roads were widened and straightened out leading from the apparent storage and setup building toward both the valley golf course launchpad site and the major highway to the south — facilitating an easier driving course for the extremely large and heavy missile TELs.

Joost Oliemans, co-author of “The Armed Forces of North Korea,” agreed that the road reconstruction work serves as “pretty strong” evidence that the complex is a missile base.

Commenting on circular areas possibly disguised as putting greens in the valley area, the Open Source Team, Oliemans and weapons expert Decker Eveleth all said they appear to be launchpads similar to another site North Korea has used for several ICBM and hypersonic IRBM launches in recent years.

Eveleth wrote an in-depth analysis for NK Pro in January that North Korea built a circular launchpad — also on top of concrete — near another Kim mansion due to missile guidance-related technical limitations.

He explained that North Korea appears to rely on a manual guidance programming method where technicians must position specialized equipment at a precise distance from the missile to align its internal navigation system using a laser beam. This requires carefully surveyed launch sites with a specific layout, which also means it takes longer to launch and is thus vulnerable to enemy attack.

The valley now features seven clear circular concrete pads, two in the center of the area that are larger and the most likely to serve as launchpads, the Open Source Team said.

Lair told NK Pro that the site could be used for testing in peacetime, but that in a conflict, the disguised golf course would likely be targeted by adversaries as a known missile launch site. Instead, he said TELs could head to the nearby highway, but that North Korea will have to improve its guidance systems to be able to launch toward the U.S. effectively from spots that haven’t been pre-prepared.

NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs imagery shows Kim family mansion buildings and support staff homes and facilities were demolished in the Songpha area of Ryokpho District (sometimes spelled Ryokpo) from April to June 2024. The new apparent TEL storage structure at the north end of the complex and improved roads throughout appeared finished by September, and the valley launchpad area by October.

It’s located among multiple other military bases: the Taewon-ri military drills site across a hill to the north (where a replica of the South Korean presidential Blue House was built and destroyed in 2016); the large KPA special forces Unit 525 base to the east; and a new tactical nuclear missile base across the highway to the south.

North Korea built a circular missile launchpad reinforced with concrete but covered to resemble a golf course at the Jindallae Guesthouse mansion in Pyongyang’s eastern Samsok District in March 2023.

The pad facilitated Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBM tests in April and July 2023, hypersonic IRBM tests in Jan. and April 2024 and the sole Hwasong-19 solid-fuel ICBM test in Nov. 2024. 

A separate open valley area on the same compound appeared to be dug up, reinforced and re-landscaped in mid-2023 ahead of a salvo launch of tactical nuclear missiles in March 2024, though it does not feature circular pads. A much larger piece of land just to the south has also been cleared and fitted out with artificial ponds and oval tracks, possibly intended as a military exercise or missile launch base.

Another site to the north was rebuilt and landscaped to serve as a launchpad for a hypersonic IRBM test in January this year, while an actual golf course hosted a short-range missile salvo launch in March 2023.

The newest launchpad site in Ryokpho could facilitate missile tests in the future, complete with state media coverage attempting to demonstrate off-road capabilities of missile TELs, but it will be difficult to convince adversaries of this message given what satellite imagery has revealed about the site.

Edited by Bryan Betts