North Korea is upgrading urban combat training facilities at a large military base near the capital, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, while urban drills appeared to take place recently at a different base.

Both bases were used for special forces training in connection with deploying over 10,000 soldiers to fight with Russia against Ukraine, and the latest upgrades come as Kiev sounds the alarm over potential plans to send thousands more troops.

Planet Labs imagery shows construction started in June on 10 buildings on a hillside in the center of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) Training Base No. 60, in Pyongyang’s Kangdong area.

The location of the construction suggests the new buildings will be used for target practice or infiltration training rather than being used as proper homes or offices, since the latter would likely be damaged during weapons drills. 

Directly in front of the buildings are artificial walls with fake windows drawn on them that were used during suicide drone attack drills that leader Kim Jong Un attended in March. 

Ground troops appeared to practice seizing a hill behind the buildings during those drills, and targets were drawn on the hillside — which are frequently used to denote artillery and rocket launcher targets — as recently as late August amid regularized drills at the site, according to Planet Labs imagery.

The new buildings contain varying room layouts but remained without roofs in a high-resolution Maxar image taken on Sept. 4.

Another large building was constructed starting in June in a dedicated MOUT (military operations on urbanized terrain) area inside the base to the west. It’s surrounded by buildings of various shapes along a mock city street, which is used to train soldiers on infiltration and holding positions in urban environments.

Meanwhile, NK Pro has tracked changes and upgrades in recent months at a larger MOUT area in Unsan County that was previously linked to KPA Unit 630 under the 11th Corps (Special Operations Forces).

The base was used during major drills that Kim attended in Oct. 2024, ahead of Ukraine war deployments. 

Planet Labs satellite imagery shows that since those drills, some mock buildings were rebuilt late last year, while others were knocked down in June as new construction started throughout the training area.

At least one large building that sprung up in July disappeared in mid-August, suggesting it may have been destroyed during recent drills. 

State media has not reported on special forces training since an event in late March at another base south of Pyongyang featuring mock buildings and even a replica of South Korea’s presidential office, the Blue House.

The North Korean military maintains dozens of urban combat training facilities across the country, but many are decades old and likely require updating to incorporate lessons learned from fighting Ukraine and changes to warfighting plans against the country’s “main enemy,” South Korea.

Kim Jong Un promoted a new project to modernize military bases across the country during a Central Military Commission (CMC) meeting in July, in line with the new five-year military plan unveiled at the Ninth Party Congress in February.

Edited by David Choi