North Korea has a covert military base near the Chinese border that poses a “potential nuclear threat” to the United States mainland, according to new research. The Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base is about 17 miles from the border with China in the North Korean province of North Pyongan, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, said in a report Wednesday. The base could contain six to nine of North Korea’s advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles, along with their mobile launchers and thousands of soldiers, the report said. Though the weapons are not likely to be mounted with nuclear warheads, they are capable of carrying them. “These missiles pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States,” the report said. The site, which the report said North Korea has never referred to publicly, was only recently discovered despite a strict international regime intended to limit further development of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Researchers said the report was based on interviews with defectors and officials around the world, as well as declassified documents, satellite images and open-source information. The report said the weapons at the base could include North Korea’s nuclear-capable Hwasong-15 or Hwasong-18 ICBMs, or a missile that has yet to be revealed. “Current assessments are that during times of crisis or war, these launchers and missiles will exit the base, meet special warhead storage/transportation units, and conduct launch operations from dispersed pre-surveyed sites.”

Full report : North Korea has a secret base near Chinese border with missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads.