Ukrainian reconnaissance detects North Korean missile system on frontline

The complex, capable of hitting targets beyond line of sight at a distance of over 10 km, has been detected by Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance in one of the front’s sectors.

There is almost no verified data on its characteristics, but the launcher likely consists of a rotating package of eight missile containers mounted on a North Korean 6×6 wheeled armored personnel carrier M-2010.

The guided missile has large stabilizers and is designed to attack targets from above where the armor is thinnest. It uses an electro-optical head for guidance, combined with command guidance through a fiber optic cable. This enables the operator to manually control the missile via video, allowing them to bypass obstacles and hit targets beyond line of sight or behind cover.

The video guidance system also allows for re-targeting if a higher priority target is detected and provides high accuracy at maximum range from the first strike.

This follows an earlier report by Bloomberg on July 26 that North Korea's economy had grown for the first time in several years, bolstered by arms supplies to Russia.

North Korea's GDP grew by 3.1% in 2023, ending a three-year decline and marking the largest growth since 2016, according to estimates released by the Central Bank of South Korea on July 26.

Journalists attribute this growth to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un's closer ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, while ignoring US calls to resume disarmament talks and lift border restrictions imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions had severely limited North Korean trade, already constrained by Western economic sanctions.

Military cooperation between Russia and North Korea

Russian dictator Putin visited Pyongyang to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on June 18.

Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" agreement at the meeting, seeking to expand economic and military cooperation and strengthen a "united front" against Washington.

White House spokesman John Kirby expressed concern about the deepening relations between Russia and North Korea, particularly regarding its impact on the war in Ukraine and security on the Korean Peninsula.

The Washington Post on June 22 reported, citing data from the US global security organization C4ADS, that North Korea could have transferred approximately 1.6 million artillery rounds to Russia in six months.

Reuters on July 9 reported that a delegation from the DPRK's elite military university, Kim Il Sung Military University, headed by President Kim Kim Chol, had traveled to the aggressor country of Russia, the first exchange of officers since Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a pact on close military cooperation.

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un met with the Russian Defense Deputy Minister Aleksey Kryvoruchka on July 18, they discussed the deepening of military cooperation between the two countries.