North Korea is building mysterious artificial islands, possibly for missile bases
Are they military installations? Or extensions of nearby oyster and fish farms? Analysts aren’t sure
North Korea is building artificial islands in the Yellow Sea and topping them with what appear to be military installations, satellite images reveal.
The images show that North Korea has been working for at least five years on the islands near the western city of Sohae, about 50km from Pyongyang. Sohae is known as a testing site for long-range missile technology.
As late as 2012, three of the islands, which are scattered around a small peninsula jutting into the Yellow Sea, were rocky, tree-studded specks; two were patches of sand. In Google Earth images from December 2016, all appear to contain features consistent with military installations, such as wide roads and paved, rectangular lots. All are in North Korea’s waters, close to the country’s shoreline.
Their purpose remains unclear. North Korea could use the islands for missile launches, anti-aircraft weapons, anti-ship weapons – or even for agriculture, with no military purpose in mind.
“We can’t make definitive statements as to what these islands are being used for,” said Ryan Barenklau, chief executive of Strategic Sentinel, a Washington-based intelligence firm that has analysed the images and wrote about them in the Diplomat, an online magazine.
Military use is likely, he continued. Roads on the islands feature wide turns, indicating that they could be used for transporter erector launchers: massive, missile-bearing trucks. Light patches on the rectangular lots could be heat-resistant cement, a sign that they may have been designed as launch pads.
“And they have observation areas, for someone like [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un to observe a missile launch,” he continued. “Every time we see VIP buildings, that tells us there’s most likely a military application, because Kim Jong-un likes to view the operations of whatever they’re building.
“At first we were really concerned about what the initial purpose of those islands are – whether they’re for military or agriculture purposes – but when we saw the observation decks, we thought, those are military.”