NK's Kim boards airborne early warning plane, oversees AI-powered suicide drone test
North Korea on Thursday disclosed what appears to be an airborne early warning and control aircraft for the first time, releasing photos of leader Kim Jong-un aboard the surveillance plane.
The Korean Central News Agency released the airplane's photos as it reported that Kim supervised performance tests of "suicide attack drones" equipped with artificial intelligence technology and a reconnaissance drone Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kim oversaw the tests while guiding defense science research projects of the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Complex and the detective electronic warfare research group.
Photos showed Kim boarding an airborne early warning and control aircraft, similar to the Peace Eye, which is operated by the South Korean Air Force and produced by Boeing, and instructing military officials inside the plane.
An airborne early warning system detects aircraft and vessels using radar, acting as "eyes in the sky."
The KCNA also released photos of the suicide drone test, showing the AI-powered drones successfully hitting ground targets, including a tank.
During the inspection, Kim "made an important evaluation of the military effectiveness and strategic value of the strategic reconnaissance drone with improved performance and the suicide attack drones with the introduction of new artificial intelligence," the KCNA said.
"Proved at the test was the innovative performance of a new-type strategic reconnaissance drone with the detective ability capable of tracking and monitoring different strategic targets and enemy troops' activities on the ground and the sea," the KCNA said.
The report also said the tests "fully demonstrated ... the striking capability of suicide drones" for use in various tactical attack missions.
"Our special means developed with up-to-date technology would play a big role in monitoring the potential threats and collecting vital intelligence," he also said, stressing they would enhance "our army's capability of conducting various kinds of intelligence-gathering operations and neutralizing the enemy's combat means of various missions."
Kim stressed the unmanned equipment and AI fields should be "top-prioritized," emphasizing, "It is important to correctly shape the state long-term plan for promoting the rapid long-term development of them in keeping with the trend of modern warfare."
The KCNA also said Kim expressed satisfaction with the "new electronic jamming and attack weapon systems" under production, quoting him as saying that the stages of the party's line of modernizing the army are being "qualitatively attained."
Kim also presented "the scientific and practical orientation and ways" to accelerate the "qualitative and quantitative" transformation in the development and production of unmanned weapons and equipment, although the KCNA did not elaborate. (Yonhap)
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