North Korea has unveiled new suicide attack drones, with leader Kim Jong Un calling for an increase in the use of technology to carry out strikes and incorporating artificial intelligence into the weapons programme.
“Kim Jong Un said that it is necessary to develop and produce more suicide drones of various types to be used in tactical infantry and special operation units,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Monday.
Photos released by North Korea’s state media showed a drone being launched into the air, flying into the top of a tank, which is then seen ablaze. South Korea’s unification ministry said it was the first time North Korea has unveiled its suicide attack drones.
While the level of North Korea’s unmanned aerial vehicles and its ability to deploy AI may be questionable, Kim has made the development of drones for use in the air and at sea a top priority.
South Korea received a wake-up call about threats from drones when Pyongyang sent five UAVs across the border in 2022, including one that flew near President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office in Seoul. South Korea’s military tried and failed to shoot the devices down. One complicating factor was a reluctance to fire munitions in heavily populated areas.
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Shortly after the episode, South Korea unveiled a plan to spend about ₩560-billion (R7.5-billion) over the next five years on drones, including systems to bring down those from adversaries. Last month, the Yoon administration said it’s looking to develop and deploy laser weapons to destroy North Korea’s drones. — Soo-Hyang Choi, (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP
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