North Korea showcases attack drones resembling Israel’s Harop
Kim Jong Un toured weapons factories where dozens of one-way attack drones were visible.
North Korea has showcased attack drones that bear a striking resemblance to Israel Aerospace Industries’ Harop loitering munition, as Kim Jong Un pushes to expand the country’s production of unmanned weapons.
Images released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency show Kim touring defense factories between September 16 and 18. Among the weapons on display are rows of small, one-way attack drones with a delta-wing design closely resembling the Harop.
The images appear to show dozens of the aircraft inside a production facility, suggesting that North Korea is moving beyond developing and testing such weapons toward manufacturing them in significant numbers.
The resemblance to the Harop does not establish that North Korea obtained or copied Israeli technology. South Korean analysts first noted similarities between North Korean suicide drones and the Harop in 2024. Another North Korean design was seen as resembling Russia’s Lancet loitering munition.
North Korea first publicly displayed similar suicide drones in August 2024. By November of that year, Kim had ordered the establishment of a production system and called for their “full-scale mass production.”
The latest images indicate that effort is continuing. Kim called for greater use of artificial intelligence in offensive and defensive weapons, increased automation and expanded production capacity.
The photographs also show other North Korean unmanned aircraft, including the Saetbyol-4, which resembles the U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk, and the Saetbyol-9, which resembles the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper.
Kim also called for continued modernization of North Korea’s artillery forces, saying the country’s artillery should have “the most concentrated and destructive, massive and versatile offensive capability.”
