North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the performance test of suicide attack drones, stressing the need for prompt full-scale "mass production," Yonhap News Agency reported citing North's state media reported on Friday.
As per the reports, these drones, with varying ranges, are designed to precisely strike ground and sea targets Kim provided on-site guidance for the tests of various types of suicide attack drones, produced by an affiliated institute of the Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex and related companies, the previous day, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stated.
"The suicide attack drones to be used within different striking ranges are to perform a mission to precisely attack any enemy targets on the ground and at sea," the Yonhap News Agency reported citing KCNA. The tests involved the drones precisely hitting the targets after flying along various preset tactical routes, it said.
As per the agency reports, Kim Jong-un expressed satisfaction with the new drones, emphasising their critical role in modern warfare saying drones emerged as "an essential requirement in military aspect nowadays."
"The competition for using drones as the main means of military capabilities ... is being accelerated in the world," he said, highlighting their expanding range of military applications, low production cost and simple production lines.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim affirmed that his country has "full possibility and potentiality to produce and introduce various types of drones" and would seek the possibility of combining and applying "new and promising tactical methods" as required by modern warfare.
"The Workers' Party of Korea has recently attached importance to the line of perfectly combining unmanned military hardware systems with operational plans," Kim said, underscoring the need for a serial production system as early as possible and go into "full-scale mass production."
North Korea first disclosed a performance test of suicide attack drones in August, which was also overseen by Kim on-site. -- PTI