A photo released by North Korean state media Friday shows a vehicle burning during a performance test of suicide attack drones overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Photo by KCNA/EPA-EFE
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited an unmanned aerial vehicle facility and ordered the “full-scale mass production” of new suicide attack drones, state media reported Friday, amid growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Kim guided a performance test of various drones at the North’s Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex on Thursday, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. Advertisement
He received “firsthand information on the attack drones under development and watched the test,” KCNA said. “The suicide attack drones to be used within different striking ranges are to perform a mission to precisely attack any enemy targets on the ground and in the sea.”
Images released by KCNA showed a drone destroying what appears to be a BMW sedan.
North Korea first unveiled its exploding suicide drones in August with a demonstration that included crashing into a replica tank.
Such weapons, also known as “kamikaze drones” or “loitering munitions,” have seen heavy use on the battlefield in Ukraine, from U.S.-supplied Switchblade drones to Russia’s Zala Lancet and Iranian Shahed drones.
During his visit, Kim “underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production,” KCNA reported. Advertisement
“The competition for using drones as the main means of military capabilities by introducing innovative technology is being accelerated in the world,” Kim said. “It is easy to use them as a component of striking power in a new domain due to their ever-expanding range of use in military activities, low production cost and simple production lines.”
Earlier this week, North Korea ratified a defense pact with Russia that calls for mutual military assistance in the event either country is attacked.
The North has dispatched upwards of 10,000 troops to Russia for its war against Ukraine, some of which have begun combat operations, the U.S. State Department said this week. Pyongyang has also delivered massive quantities of munitions to Russia — as many as 8 million artillery shells and rockets, according to Doo Jinho, chief of the global strategy division at South Korean think tank Korea Institute Defense Analyses.
Doo said during a meeting with international media earlier this week that the shipments have depleted North Korea’s own stockpile, and may entail Russia offering a security umbrella guarantee to Pyongyang in exchange.
South Korean officials have also raised concerns that Moscow may be sharing missile and nuclear technology with the North in return for the troop deployment. Advertisement
Seoul’s military intelligence said Monday that North Korea’s new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile, test-fired on Oct. 31, could have been developed with Russian technical assistance.
