North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his country to quickly start mass producing self-detonating explosive drones, calling their development an \u201cessential requirement,\u201d after overseeing a test of the deadly aerial weapon, state media reported Friday. <\/p>\n
Images published by North Korean state media show Kim and various officials at the launch site. Images show a car and a tank being destroyed by what appears to be unmanned aerial vehicles, which have been heavily blurred by the news agency. <\/p>\n
State media reported that drones \u201cof various types precisely hit the targets\u201d as part of the test. They can be \u201cused within different striking ranges\u201d and are designed \u201cto precisely attack any enemy targets on the ground and in the sea,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
Kim said the use of such drones in military activities is being expanded around the world and authorities are recognizing that \u201cdrones are achieving clear successes in big and small conflicts,\u201d state media reported. <\/p>\n
Such self-detonating drones, also sometimes referred to as suicide drones, have been widely used to great effect on the battlefield in Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and in the Middle East. <\/p>\n
Comparatively cheap to produce and usually deployed in swarms making their numbers difficult to shoot down, drones such as the Iranian-made Shahed 136 have transformed modern combat, providing an asymmetric advantage when deployed against technically superior adversaries. <\/p>\n
Kim \u201cunderscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production,\u201d state media reported, adding that \u201csuch objective change urgently calls for updating many parts of military theory.\u201d <\/p>\n
The order comes as concern in the West grows over North Korea\u2019s military cooperation with Russia. <\/p>\n
The US State Department said Tuesday that 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Russia and \u201chave begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces\u201d in Kursk region, where Ukraine\u2019s three-month military incursion into Russian territory has stalled. <\/p>\n
The North Korean troops dispatched to Russia are deemed to have not had suitable training for drone warfare, according to a South Korea\u2019s Defense Intellectual Agency evaluation shared by lawmakers briefed on the issue. <\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s defense minister last month expressed concern that Pyongyang is \u201cvery likely to ask\u201d Moscow for advanced technology related to nuclear weapons in exchange for deploying troops to Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s drone test came after North Korea on Tuesday ratified a mutual defense treaty with Russia in which the two countries pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked. <\/p>\n
The move cements the two countries\u2019 deepening alignment in the face of their international isolation over Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile program. <\/p>\n
The defense pact was signed in June by Kim and Vladimir Putin during a rare state visit by the Russian leader to Pyongyang. <\/p>\n
Kim previously oversaw the test of self-detonating drones in August, where he stressed the need to equip the North Korean army with them \u201cas early as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
In October, North Korea threatened \u201cretaliation\u201d after accusing South Korea of flying propaganda-filled drones over Pyongyang. Seoul did not confirm or deny the accusations after North Korea\u2019s state-run KCNA published images of what it claimed was a drone, as well as leaflets that said, \u201ca comparison of the food you can buy,\u201d and \u201cNorth Korea\u2019s economic situation falling into hell.\u201d <\/p>\n
In 2022, North Korea sent five drones into South Korea, four of which flew around Ganghwa island and another that flew over capital Seoul\u2019s northern airspace. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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