North Korea Using AI and Drones to Rapidly Enhance Reconnaissance-Strike Complexes

Chairman of the Korean Workers’ Party Kim Jong Un has ordered the wider integration of artificial intelligence into the country’s offensive and defensive weapons systems, while calling for increased automation of artillery and expanded military production. The directives were issued during a three-day inspection of major defence-industrial facilities, highlighting the Korean People’s Army’s growing emphasis on combining conventional firepower with increasingly automated and unmanned systems. State media has released images showing leadership examining production facilities for artillery systems and drones, including the country’s large 600mm multiple launch rocket systems which are the longest range systems of their kind in the world, with all these assets thought to be capable of benefitting from wider adoption of AI. 

During the inspections, Chairman Kim called for the country’s artillery forces to possess the “most concentrated and destructive, massive and versatile offensive capability,” describing their two principal functions as deterrence and warfighting. He directed defence manufacturers to increase production capacity, modernise manufacturing processes and improve the technological infrastructure of military-industrial facilities to meet longer-term production objectives. The inspections appear to have covered several of North Korea’s most important recent weapons programs. Images released by state media showed 600mm and 240mm rocket artillery systems and unmanned aircraft. The 600mm system, commonly referred to outside North Korea as the KN-25, uses mobile launchers allow the systems to be dispersed and relocated. North Korea has also stated that the system incorporates artificial intelligence and combined guidance technologies. 

North Korea’s renewed emphasis on AI follows earlier demonstrations of weapons described by Pyongyang as incorporating artificial intelligence. In May, the country conducted tests involving tactical ballistic missiles, long-range artillery rockets and a tactical cruise missile system that state media claimed used AI-assisted guidance. North Korea said the tests were intended to assess the combat performance of weapons and automated launch systems upgraded for modern warfare. The importance of artificial intelligence in modern warfare has gained growing attention both due to the expanding potentials of the technology, due to its increasingly central rules in the Russian-Ukrainian War, where North Korean forces are actively deployed.

North Korean forces have participated in frontline operations alongside the Russian Army, providing opportunities to observe a conflict in which drones, electronic warfare, automated targeting and precision artillery have become central components of battlefield operations. In August Ukrainian sources reported that 400 drone operators from the country had deployed to Russia to support the war effort. Russia has itself reportedly assisted North Korea’s development of military drones and related technologies. The renewed focus on artificial intelligence is occurring alongside a broader expansion of North Korea’s unmanned warfare capabilities. In recent days, Pyongyang has publicly revealed production lines for the Saetbyol-4 and Saetbyol-9 unmanned aircraft as well as an unnamed one-way attack drone. The appearance of multiple airframes at production facilities suggests that North Korea is seeking to establish greater manufacturing capacity rather than merely develop individual experimental aircraft. 

For North Korea, the combination of artificial intelligence, automation, drones and mass-produced artillery could transform the country’s reconnaissance strike complexes. The Korean People’s Army already operates by father largest artillery and rocket artillery forces in the world, and has made major strides in modernising its capabilities including expanding ranges and improving precision guidance capabilities. Automated target acquisition and guidance could reduce the manpower required to operate certain weapons and potentially increase their responsiveness on the battlefield. High levels of autonomy achieved by new types of drones could also provide greater access to targeting data for artillery and missile forces, while advances in artificial intelligence allow low cost attack drones to provide complementary strike capabilities.