As Kim Jong Un unleashed his biggest-ever barrage of missile tests last month, one place suffered the most: a barren piles of rocks whose name means "No Man’s Land.”
Alsom Island, located 18 kilometers off North Korea’s northeastern coast, has been targeted in more than 25 missile strikes since 2019. It was the destination of eight rockets in January alone, as Kim carried out the most launches since he took power in a signal of defiance against a U.S.-led sanctions regime intended to punish Pyongyang for developing such weapons.
The South Korean military has closely watched the outcropping’s bombardment, especially after North Korea built a 10-meter wide domed structure there in August 2020, according to opposition lawmaker Yoon Ju-kyeong. Such a structure could be used to test bunker-buster bombs, her office said, while others have speculated it might serve as a stand-in for a government building in Seoul.
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