North Korea has deployed 122-mm multiple rocket launchers on an uninhabited island just 4.5 km from South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, the military here believes.

"We have intelligence reports that the North has recently brought four 122-mm MRLs to Galdo, where it has mobilized personnel and equipment since March to build an encampment," a senior military officer here said Tuesday. "We've confirmed that about 100 troops are now permanently stationed there."

Over the past months, the North has built five MRL positions, a command post facility and barracks on the island.

"The North transported the MRLs by train but they suddenly disappeared from view, so we believe they were taken to Galdo," the officer said.

But they have not been sighted there.

"Some people think it was a bad ide a to build an artillery battery on a small, uninhabited, exposed island instead of on the mainland coast, which is easy to defend," the officer added. "But 122-mm MRLs are a new threat because they have a short range but are highly accurate."

The MRLs would be capable of striking up to 16 km south of Yeonpyeong Island.

