North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Reveals Early-Warning Aircraft and Supervises AI Suicide Drone Test

Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, has emphasized developments in early-warning aircraft and AI-powered suicide drones for military use.

According to state media on Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of suicide drones fitted with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, highlighting the importance of AI capabilities and unmanned control as the main goals of contemporary armaments development.

Kim also examined updated reconnaissance drones that are intended to identify different tactical objectives and enemy operations on land and at sea, according to the state news agency KCNA.

According to KCNA, Kim stated that “the field of unmanned equipment and artificial intelligence should be top-prioritized and developed in modernizing the armed forces.”

In addition, North Korea made its first official announcement of an airborne early-warning (AEW) aircraft, which might improve its aging air defense capabilities.

Kim approached a big four-engine plane with a radar dome on the fuselage and observed the plane during a low-altitude fly-by, according to photos released by official media.

North Korea was adapting Russian-built Il-76 cargo jets for an early-warning duty, according to earlier reports from analysts using commercial satellite images. Such an aircraft would assist complement North Korea’s current land-based radar capabilities, which are occasionally hampered by the peninsula’s hilly geography, according to a September research from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

According to the paper, “an AEW aircraft’s ability to look down offsets some of the difficulties of the terrain and ground-clutter returns to track low-flying aircraft and cruise missiles.”

But according to the study, North Korea might need to repurpose more of its cargo fleet in order to construct more AEW aircraft because one would not be enough.

Although the aircraft’s operational capabilities are yet unknown, the South Korean military stated that its look indicates that it is “large and heavy and probably susceptible to interception.”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-jun hinted that Russia might have contributed internal systems and components, even though the aircraft was refurbished from North Korea’s current fleet.

Shin Won-sik, the national security adviser for South Korea, had earlier claimed in November that Pyongyang had deployed troops to aid in the war in Ukraine in exchange for Russia providing North Korea with anti-air missiles and unidentified air defense systems.