Putin's "Spare Engine": Will North Korea a new drone supplier for
According to Defense Express, North Korea can transfer not only soldiers, but also combat drones, including Drone Kamikadze. The DPRK is actively copying other people's developments: its arsenal has visual clones of Israeli Harop and Hero 400 - shock drones capable of acting at a distance of up to 200 km. Harop, for example, is equipped with a passive radar head of homing and is intended for the destruction of radar and armored vehicles.
Hero 400 - lighter, with container launch, operates within a radius of more than 150 km and lasts in the air for up to 2 hours. But Pyongyang goes on. In March 2025, his military was presented almost a copy of the American reconnaissance RQ-4 Global Hawk-a giant drone, created on the basis of Chinese details to the MiG-21. Earlier, at the end of 2024, a drone of his own development with X-shaped wings came into service-his task is to impress light equipment, infantry, cars and even motorcycles.
According to the director of the information and consulting company Defense Express, a military expert Sergey Zgurets, information on the transfer of technical documentation for the creation of combat drones was published in open sources. However, there is no documentary confirmation that these drones are already applying against Ukraine. "The danger of the DPRK is not in Shahaneda, but its ballistic missiles, shells and a new portion of North Korean soldiers," the expert said.
Regarding the production of drones, the military expert, Pavel Narozhivny notes that Russia has the opportunity to establish the production of "Shahmed" together with North Korea. In particular, Russia has almost completely received from Iran technology of production of these drones, which are called "geranium". In the DPRK it is possible to easily adjust the production of shock drones that will be collected from the finished components. "Shahamed type design is relatively simple.
It includes the navigation system, glider, engine and warhead. The engine used in these drones is extremely simple and massively produced in China for household appliances, such as mopeds or gas. The same applies to navigation systems. Unlike the details of the drone itself, which can be supplied from China, the combat part can be produced in the DPRK. It is about fugas ammunition, with cumulative action and a cramp.
The Narozhny expresses confidence in the ability of North Korea to establish the assembly of such drones. This is due to the presence of cheap labor and authoritarian regime, which provides control over production processes. "In North Korea is a rigid dictatorship where a large amount of labor actually works for food. There is no choice in people, so launching drones in such conditions is a matter of technology.
In addition, Russia is likely to finance the process and transmit Pyongyang necessary technologies," the expert said. According to the Deputy CEO of the company for the production of the means of the I PM, aviation expert Anatoly Khrapchynsky, the DPRK is a country with a mobilized economy, where the plants do not work for profit, but to the direction from above. If Pyongyang receives a political prominence and technical equipment from Moscow - drone workshops will appear very rapidly.
"And this is not just a hypothesis. Russia is now supplying components, technique and in the future - software. Considering that Russian production ShahED is stretched in several locations and requires logistic stability, the DPRK can become its" spare engine ". The aviation expert said that in North Korea there is a rather developed network of military-industrial facilities that have been building rockets and artillery for decades. Many of them can be quickly reoriented to drone production.
In particular, factories on the outskirts of Pyongyan, as well as rocket centers near Hamkhin. In particular, this country has metallurgy, electronics, energy - everything that is needed to collect a budget drone. "If Pyongyang decides to make 500 drones a month, he will do it. And then try to destroy these objects without having a global scandal," the expert continues.
According to Khrapchynsky, it is possible to involve the DPRK in the production of drones similar to Shahd significantly increases the threat to Ukraine. If North Korea is able to adjust even partial production production, Russia will receive an additional tool for constant pressure on our air defense system. Attacks will become more massive, less predictable and cheaper - that's the way, according to the expert, the "carpet bombing" strategy works. "Separate risk-in combat experience.
The North Korean instructors have already been recorded on Russian landfills near Kursk, where they were trained in the fight against FPV-punks of the Armed Forces. This means that they are not just producing-they adapt to our tactics. And they will return this experience to their conveyors," the expert emphasized. North Korea is currently able to produce cheap, not too reliable, but mass drones.