Satellite images reveal new North Korean bases for fleet of assault hovercraft
North Korea is developing bases for its fleet of assault hovercraft that will be able to deploy elite special forces troops on South Korean soil in half an hour.
The rogue state is building two new bases and upgrading two existing facilities for the vehicles on its west coast, increasing the threat to South Korean-held islands in the West Sea.
The additional bases are expected to be completed next year, with analysts pointing out that the new site at Yonbong-ni will house the furthest forward-deployed assault hovercraft in the North Korean fleet.
While many navies around the world have units of the amphibious craft in their armouries, they are primarily used on a smaller scale and for specialist missions. North Korea, however, began introducing hovercraft into its strike forces in the 1980s, replacing conventional landing craft that were seen as too slow and unable to carry sufficiently large loads to carry out a successful invasion.
Satellite images taken in December show work under way at the Yonbong-ni base, which covers nearly 170 acres, including the construction of hardened shelters for 54 hovercraft, according to a study printed in Beyond Parallel, produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Written by Joseph Bermudez, an imagery analyst for the 38 North website, which is run by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the study claims that the new Yonbong-ni site will permit hovercraft to land troops on the South Korean island of Daecheong-do in around 30 minutes, while the major port city of Incheon is just 90 minutes away.
Each hovercraft is capable of transporting 50 of the North’s elite special forces, who are tasked with creating bridgeheads, sabotaging an enemy’s command-and-control capabilities, assaulting airbases and missile sites, interdicting lines of communication and conducting strategic reconnaissance. These advance units include sniper brigades.
North Korea has long coveted the South Korean-held islands in the West Sea and disputes the maritime Northern Limit Line, drawn at the end of the Korean War in 1953. In 2010, North Korea bombarded the island of Yeonpyong with an estimated 170 artillery rounds, killing four people.
Work is also under way at the North’s new Sasulpo base, which is also expected to be used to forward-deploy hovercraft form their home bases of Kibong-dong and Tasa-ri. The work includes the construction of new slipways, protective dams and levees, headquarters facilities and earthen revetments to protect the hovercraft shelters.
Originally a British invention that dates back to the late 1950s, hovercraft have been put to a wide array of civilian and military uses.
Today, the Royal Marines use a version that is designed to carry up to 20 troops, while both the US and Russia deploy far larger variants. The Russian 555-ton Zubr-class hovercraft can carry up to three tanks or as many as 500 troops.
“If North Korea does redeploy the existing hovercraft units at Kibong-dong and Tasa-ri to the Yonbong-ni hovercraft base, it would represent the furthest forward deployment of any KPN [Korean People’s Navy] unit to date”, Mr Bermudez concluded.
It would also be “a significant escalation of the navy sniper brigade threat to the ROK [Republic of Korea] islands in the West Sea and ports along the coast; and potentially a political calculation that the ROK is too weak to counter such a move”.
