North Korea May be Deploying the Latest Surface-to-Air Missile Near Haeju, North Korea

2019-1-17, Shin In-gyun’s National Defense TV

North Korea may be deploying its latest Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM) to a location close to the Seoul Metropolitan area.  In the South-North Military Agreement, it states that near the NLL (Northern Limit Line), we cannot deploy additional weapons, we cannot conduct firing training, and we must cover the coastal artillery, and such, and we’re doing that now, aren’t we?  Even with the introduction of the F-35s, that’s something we already contracted for several years ago, but parts of the media is saying ‘will North Korea be ok with that?’ and is worrying about it.

In light of this situation, North Korea appears to be deploying a new SAM…It’s right next to Haeju (city), in the hills of Byuksung County, South Hwanghae Province.  (38.0913° N, 125.4506° E)…We discovered a new site under construction.

This is an image from April 13, 2017…We don’t have the capability to get expensive commercial satellite photos like 38th North.  We just use Google Earth…And this is an image from October 20, 2018…We found these structures. The command post, barracks, launch pads.

We assess the site to be for Surface-to-Air missiles.

Theses structures are for concealing missiles by hiding them below and from which the missiles are pulled out to shoot them. These adits [may be] for surface-to air missiles…It looks like it’s not completed yet.  It looks like they’re continuing constructions. So sometime later, they may probably deploy SAMs

Which SAM is the new missile site for?  Shin said North Korea has SA-2, SA-3, SA-5, and KN-06. “SA-2 and SA-5 have been set in their locations and they have been discontinued for a long time. Thus, it is not likely to be able to introduce additional missiles and associated radars, so it’s difficult to believe that the new SAM site is for SA-2 or SA-5.  Then KN-06, which North Korea has continuously displayed at its military parade, is what I assess to be deployed to the new site next to Haeju.” Shin said KN-06 (North Korea calls it Lightning #5) has a range of 150 Km.

How threatening is the new surface-to-air missile site?

This could put ROK Air Force’s Suwon Air Base, U.S. Air Force’s Osan Air Base (and ROK Air Operations Command Headquarters is also at Osan Air Base), and ROK Air Force’s largest base Seosan Air Base all would be within the range.  As soon as an aircraft takes off, it could be shot down.” Shin said Seongnam Air Base [just south of the Han River near Seoul] would also be within the range. Shin said surveillance aircraft taking off from these bases could be impacted as well as the ROK F-16 patrols as it would be extremely burdensome for them to operate within the range. Shin further said this goes beyond the No Fly Zones of 40 km [on the west] and 20 km [on the east] from the Military Demarcation Line that was also in the September 2018 South-North military agreement.

North Korea has claimed that it also has developed Lightning #6 and Lightning #7…This looks very similar to Russian S-300…S-300 has different varieties. There’s a S-300 missile version with a range of 400 km.  It seems they’re implying that Lightning #7 has a range of 400 km. If North Korea really developed Lightning #7, the one with 400 km range, and if North Korea shoots the missile from the site near Haeju, then the entire area of South Korea is within the range of S-300 or Lightening #5, #6, and #7…So when are they deploying them?

But what is the Moon administration doing now?  [They say] ‘in order to increase the confidence between South-North militaries, let’s ease the tension.  Let’s not do hostile acts.’ For the first time…in Korean (leaving out North Korea) history, we formed the largest Ground Component Command (GCC) of 300,000 soldiers…and our commander-in-chief did not attend the foundation ceremony of the GCC. The Minister of Defense, who attended instead, talked about ‘peace’ every day. There was no gun salute in the training ground or a review of the troops or hosting…It was really small. We ended up having a quiet and ‘cozy’ ceremony in a hall that was smaller than an auditorium of a high school.  That’s how much [South Korea] is kowtowing to North Korea. But North Korea seems to be deploying like this to suppresses our military, especially our asymmetric power air force, which has an overwhelming strength, by suppressing our air operations in Gyeonggi Province, Gyeonggi net, NLL–is this situation really a normal situation?

[truncated]  Source: https://youtu.be/40Lpg-80VHg