The communist regime of North Korea claimed on Thursday that its dictator, Kim Jong-un, had presided over tests of a new model of suicide drone equipped with artificial intelligence (AI).
North Korea had first debuted a fleet of alleged suicide drones in August, meaning that, if its claims are accurate, it has advanced with significant speed in the development of advanced models of the weapons. Suicide drones, or “loitering munitions,” are effectively flying bombs that can be remotely directed to crash into a target of the user’s choice. They are less advanced that the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by the United States and other great powers that can conduct and airstrike by dropping explosives and be reloaded, rather than serve for only one-time use. Suicide drones are, however, far less expensive to manufacture and easier to mass produce, making them a popular choice in various conflicts ongoing today, most prominently the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea is believed to be an active participant in the Russian invasion despite its regime refusing to confirm that it has deployed troops there. Ukrainian and South Korean officials have estimated that as many as 12,000 North Korean troops are fighting for Russia in the Ukraine war theater; Ukraine attempted to prove its claims by publishing videos of captured North Korean soldiers in January.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) – North Korea’s flagship source of legal news for its citizens – reported on Thursday that Kim had personally “guided the defence science research work of the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Complex and the detective electronic warfare research group.”
“The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un learned about various kinds of reconnaissance and suicide attack drones,” KCNA claimed, “newly developed and being produced by an institute and enterprises under the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Complex, and oversaw their performance test.”
The fleet of drones that Kim allegedly made an “important evaluation” of featured artificial intelligence, the outlet claimed, though it did not explain what the artificial intelligence was intended to facilitate. KCNA paraphrased Kim as emphasizing, however, the alleged importance of AI in North Korean military development, presumably to protect from South Korean or American attack. North Korea has technically been in a state of war against both countries since 1950, though the Korean War’s period of active hostility ended in 1953.
“Saying that the field of unmanned equipment and artificial intelligence should be top-prioritized and developed in modernizing the armed forces,” KCNA shared, “[Kim] stressed it is important to correctly shape the state long-term plan for promoting the rapid development of the work to use intelligent drones.”
Kim claimed that the introduction of AI was part of the current “trend of modern warfare” and impossible to ignore in the impoverished country’s development.
In addition to the alleged AI-powered suicide drones, Kim oversaw tests of new reconnaissance drones, intended for intelligence-gathering operations. The weapons in question were designed for spying on enemy troop movements, naval operations, and “electronic jamming and attack systems.”
Kim enjoyed “great satisfaction” with the tests, KCNA concluded.
North Korea first claimed to possess domestically produced suicide drones in August. Kim said at the time that it was “necessary” for the country to develop them, presumably for North Korea use, though many reports in the past year have suggested that North Korea is also seeking to become a key weapons market for Russia. International observers noted the close timing between the debut of the alleged North Korean suicide drones and a visit by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang in June 2024. That visit, the first in two decades for Putin, concluded with the two countries signing a mutual defense agreement that experts and foreign powers have interpreted to bind North Korea to Russia’s interests in the Ukraine war.
North Korea welcomed a Russian delegation to its capital last week, led by former defense minister and close friend of the regime Sergei Shoigu. Shoigu currently serves as the secretary of the Russian Security Council.
“I would like to express my gratitude to our Korean friends for solidarity with Russia’s position on all critical geopolitical issues and on the Ukrainian issue in particular,” Shoigu reportedly told his North Korean hosts during the visit.
Following that visit, South Korea’s military revealed on Thursday that it had reason to believe that North Korea had deployed at least 3,000 more troops to Russia to help the Ukraine invasion effort.
“Of the some 11,000 North Korean soldiers dispatched to Russia, 4,000 casualties have occurred, and it appears that some 3,000 or more have been additionally dispatched in January and February,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) updated reporters, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
The Russian news agency Tass reported on Thursday that Kim Jong-un is preparing to visit Russia in the near future, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko. The report did not offer any timeline for when Kim would be expected in the country.
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