North Korea to mass produce kamikaze drones

Kim Jong-un places order for self-detonating unmanned aerial vehicles as dictator supports Russia in Ukraine

Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
North Korea will start mass-producing kamikaze drones after dictator Kim Jong-un was impressed with a test display on Thursday, according to its state media.
Accompanied by top political officials, Kim was said to have acquainted himself with several types of kamikaze drones produced by North Korea’s Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Complex [UATC].
State media said the test was successful, with every drone hitting its target “precisely” as intended.
One photo showed Kim, dressed in a white two-piece suit and matching hat, inspecting one of the unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] as a crowd of officials looked on.
In other images, military officers appeared to be explaining equipment and machinery to Kim.
Kim said that North Korea must go into “full-scale mass production” of drones as soon as possible owing to the “clear successes” that UAVs were having in conflicts across the world.
He added that North Korea was updating its military theory amid increased drone use in wars over the past decade.
Some of the machines resembled Russia’s lancet drone, which the Kremlin uses for attacking high-value targets such as tanks and artillery on the battlefield in Ukraine.
On Monday, North Korea ratified a mutual defence pact with Russia, which has led to the communist state sending thousands of elite troops to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Some 11,000 North Korean troops are believed to be stationed in the Kursk region ahead of a push by the Kremlin to retake a bridgehead, which Ukraine punched into Russian territory in August.
Pyongyang’s deepening security ties with Moscow have rattled neighbouring democracies in south-east Asia, where North and South Korea are still officially at war.
Takeshi Iwaya, Japan’s foreign minister, travelled to Kyiv on Saturday, to express Tokyo’s “grave concern” over growing military co-operation between North Korea and Russia.
Over the past year, Tokyo has become one of Ukraine’s major backers, supplying billions in financial aid.
South Korea, a major arms exporter, is reassessing its long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to war zones in light of North Korea’s involvement in Ukraine.
Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea, said earlier this month that his government is “not ruling out” providing weapons directly to Kyiv.
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email