North Korea’s Kim Jong-un orders mass production of exploding suicide drones

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the mass production of exploding suicide drones designed to crash into targets after he guided a test of these aerial weapons, the state media reported on Friday.

The suicide attack drones, also known as loitering munitions, can be used to precisely attack enemy targets on the ground and in the sea and carry out a mission in different striking ranges, the North Korea state news agency KCNA reported.

The report claimed that the drones flew various routes and accurately struck targets. The images purportedly showed a BMW sedan being destroyed and old models of tanks being blown up.

"(Kim) underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production," the report added.

Mr Kim said the competition for using drones for military purposes is accelerating around the world, with military authorities likely recognising their success in conflicts of various scale.

“The military authorities in the world will probably recognise that the drones are achieving clear successes in big and small conflicts. This is a trend that has emerged as an essential requirement in the military aspect nowadays,” it said.

Suicide drones have been used in escalating conflicts around the world, including in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, to prolong the conflict without expending the costly and deadly cruise and ballistic missiles.

"Such objective change urgently calls for updating many parts of military theory, practice and education," Mr Kim said, according to KCNA.

The country’s latest military demonstration came as the US, South Korea and Japan engaged in combined military exercises involving advanced fighter jets and a US aircraft carrier in nearby international waters, in a display of their defense posture against North Korea.

This is not the first time the North Korean supreme leader is testing the practical use of suicide drones. In August, Mr Kim supervised a test of domestically-developed attack drones and said Pyongyang’s military should be equipped with them “as early as possible”.

Photos of the drone test showed a white drone with X-shaped tails and wings crashing into and destroying a target resembling South Korea’s K-2 main battle tank.

On the domestic front, North Korean drones have already been shot down by the South after Pyongyang sent them across the border flying for hours in key areas including Seoul and over the no-fly zone surrounding the South Korean presidential office.

The testing of the suicide drones amid North Korea’s rapidly developing military alliance with Russia has sparked concerns about Mr Kim receiving technical help from Moscow.

The leaders in the west are carefully watching North Korea and Russia’s recently ratified strategic partnership along military lines, where the two sides have vowed to come to each other’s aid.

Additionally, North Korea has deployed thousands of its troops to Russia’s western frontlines in the war with Ukraine without officially announcing its participation in Europe’s largest conflict since the Second World War.