Unmanned bombers: Kim witnessing the suicide drone test at an undisclosed location in North Korea. — AFP
Pyongyang has unveiled a new “suicide drone”, state media said, with leader Kim Jong-un overseeing a performance test of the weapons, which experts said could have come from Russia.
Wearing a cream baker boy hat, Kim was shown beaming as he watched, aided by high-powered binoculars, as the drones blew up targets, images in state media showed yesterday.
Kim said that “it is necessary to develop and produce more suicide drones”, the Korean Central News Agency reported, in addition to “strategic reconnaissance and multi-purpose attack drones”.
Suicide drones are explosive-carrying unmanned drones designed to be deliberately crashed into enemy targets, effectively acting as guided missiles.
The North’s growing drone fleet will “be used within different striking ranges to attack any enemy targets on the ground and in the sea”, KCNA said.
All the drones tested “correctly identified and destroyed the designated targets after flying along different preset routes”, it added.
Kim also said his country would work towards “pro-actively introducing artificial intelligence technology into the development of drones”.
Cho Sang-keun, a professor at South Korea’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said the drones are a significant threat to the South’s security and its critical facilities. — AFP
