Russia to help North Korea produce Shahed drones - Ukraine intel

The War Zone outlet learned this from the chief of Ukraine’s HUR defense intelligence agency, Kyrylo Budanov, Ukrinform reports.

“[There are] agreements on the beginning of the creation of capabilities to produce UAVs of the Garpiya and Geran [the Russian version of Iranian Shahed-136 drones] types on the territory of North Korea. It will for sure bring changes in the military balance in the region between North Korea and South Korea," Budanov said.

According to the head of the HUR, so far Moscow and Pyongyang have only agreed to start organizing the production of such drones in the DPRK territory. In addition, in exchange for the supply of troops and weapons, Russia is transferring technologies to Pyongyang, including those for the production of drones and KN-23 ballistic missiles.

“Initially, with the beginning of the transfer to Russia, they were flying with a deviation of a few kilometers, but now they are exactly hitting the target. This is the result of the common work of Russian and North Korean specialists,” Budanov said.

He noted that the modernization of aviation weapons is underway, including long-range air-to-air missiles. Moscow is also transferring special technologies for submarines and ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads.

The HUR chief noted that North Korea had major issues with nuclear-capable missile carriers and with sea launches, but now the Russians are helping Pyongyang to this end.

“And the great demonstration of this for everybody is, as I mentioned before, this famous KN-23 ballistic missile. The KN-23 missiles that were delivered in the very beginning, now it’s an absolutely different missile in [terms] of their technical characteristics. The accuracy is increased many times," Budanov said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the South Korean military believes that, in exchange for assistance in the war against Ukraine, North Korea could have received tech assistance from Russia to develop a new air-to-air missile, which Pyongyang said was undergoing testing last week.