North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency has published photos of Kim talking with officials near at least two different types of unmanned aerial vehicles.
North Korea has tested deadly exploding “kamikaze” drones designed to smash into targets as Kim Jong-un demanded an increase in their mass production.
The despot leader’s latest weapons escalation raises fears the drones could be sent off to Russia in a new move in Pyongyang’s support for Vladimir Putin’s war.
Kim is already believed to have sent up to 12,000 of his troops to Russia, some of whom have started fighting alongside Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.
His rogue state’s latest military demonstration came as the United States, South Korea and Japan engaged in combined military exercises.
The mass wargaming involving advanced fighter jets and a U.S. aircraft carrier in nearby international waters, in a display of their defence posture against North Korea.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency published photos of Kim talking with officials near at least two different types of unmanned aerial vehicles.
They included some with X-shaped tails and wings that look similar to the ones the country disclosed in August.
The drones flew various routes and accurately struck targets, KCNA said.
Its images showed what appeared to be a BMW sedan being destroyed and old models of tanks being blown up.
Kim appeared happy with the weapons’ development process and stressed the need to “build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production.”
KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying drones were easy to make at low cost for a range of military activities.
The report didn’t say if Kim spoke directly about rival South Korea, which the North Korean drones are apparently designed to target.
North Korea last month accused South Korea of sending its own drones to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the North’s capital of Pyongyang.
It has threatened to respond with force if the flights occur again.
Tensions in the region have escalated as Kim flaunts his advancing nuclear and missile program, which includes various nuclear-capable weapons targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the U.S. mainland.
Kim has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash in the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
