A U.S. think tank has unveiled a report on a little-known North Korean missile operating base.

Victor Cha and Joseph Bermudez at the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS) released the report titled "Undeclared North Korea: The Kumchon-ni Missile Operating Base" on the North Korea affairs website Beyond Parallel (beyondparallel.csis.org) on Friday.

They said the base is one of approximately 20 undeclared ballistic missile operating bases and one that is reported to be tasked with not only strikes against the southern half of Japan but also capable of striking all of South Korea.

The report said the Kumchon-ni base is located within North Korea’s tactical missile belt in Anbyon County, Gangwon Province and is eleven-hundred kilometers west of Tokyo and 165 kilometers northeast of Seoul.

The base houses a battalion- or regiment-sized unit that during the early 1990s was reported to have been equipped with the 500 to 600 kilometer-range Hwasong-6 short-range ballistic missiles. 

It was confirmed in 1999 the unit based at Kumchon-ni was one of the first to be equipped with the then new one thousand-kilometer-range Hwasong-9 medium-range ballistic missile, according to the report.

It said that while the Hwasong-6 allowed the missile unit based at Kumchon-ni to strike almost all of South Korea with the exception of Jeju Island, the longer-range Hwasong-9 was able to deliver a 750 kilogram warhead to all of South Korea and the southern half of Japan.

[Photo : YONHAP News]