North Korea tested exploding drones designed to crash into targets and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for accelerating mass production of the weapons, state media reported yesterday.
The country’s latest military demonstration came as the US, South Korea and Japan engaged in combined military exercises involving advanced fighter jets and a US aircraft carrier in nearby international waters, in a display of their defense posture against North Korea.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published photographs of Kim talking with officials near at least two different types of uncrewed aerial vehicles. They included those with X-shaped tails and wings that look similar to the ones the country disclosed in August, when Kim inspected another demonstration of drones that explode on impact.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The drones flew various routes and accurately struck targets, KCNA said.
Its images showed what appeared to be a BMW sedan being destroyed and old models of tanks being blown up.
Kim expressed satisfaction with the weapons’ development process and stressed the need to “build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production,” adding that drones are becoming crucial in modern warfare.
KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying drones were easy to make at low cost for a range of military activities.
The report did not say whether Kim spoke directly about rival South Korea, which the North Korean drones are apparently designed to target.
North Korea last month accused South Korea of sending its own drones to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the North’s capital, Pyongyang, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again.
South Korea’s military has refused to confirm whether the North’s claims were true.
South Korean officials said that North Korea will be a key topic in a trilateral summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at APEC meetings in Peru, which start tomorrow.
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on the margins of APEC in Lima on Thursday and discussed “strong concerns” over deepening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, particularly the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, the US Department of State said.