North Korea reveals new drone production lines

North Korean state media revealed production lines for at least three types of domestically built drones this week, including a one-way attack drone that resembles Israeli-designed loitering munitions, as part of a factory tour by leader Kim Jong Un reported Sept. 19.

The ruling Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Kim, the party’s general secretary, inspected “important munitions industry enterprises” from Sept. 16 to 18. Photos accompanying the report showed him walking through an assembly hall containing dozens of small flying-wing drones mounted on stands, alongside separate images of him examining what appeared to be missile or drone airframe components with factory officials.

One drone shown is a one-way attack type visually similar to Israel’s Harop family of loitering munitions, weapons built to fly toward a target and detonate on impact rather than return to base. North Korea unveiled a dedicated launch system for this drone at a nighttime military parade on Oct. 10, 2025, marking the Workers’ Party’s 80th anniversary.

That parade featured four 6×6 trucks, each carrying two stacked rows of three launch containers, for an apparent capacity of six drones per vehicle. The parade followed an August 2024 reveal of prototype airframes styled after Israel’s Harop and Switchblade-style “Hero” loitering munitions, neither of which came with published performance figures at the time.

This week’s images of the attack drone during testing were partly obscured, withholding a clear view of some components, though analysts have suggested the design may be related to a rail-launched drone North Korea has separately tested that uses a small rocket booster to get airborne.

Other drones shown on the factory floor were still semi-complete airframes, but their shape already matched North Korea’s larger reconnaissance-strike drones, the Saetbyol-4 and Saetbyol-9.

Both first appeared publicly in July 2023 and have undergone repeated flight tests since. The Saetbyol-4 bears a resemblance to the U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone, while the Saetbyol-9, with a wingspan of roughly 20 meters (66 feet), resembles the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper and carries hardpoints that suggest it is built to fire guided weapons rather than only observe. North Korean state media has separately called for expanded production across the country’s drone programs, following Kim’s public push earlier this year to accelerate output.

The factory visit came the same week Kim toured facilities producing a mobile rocket launcher that outside analysts have compared to the U.S. Army’s HIMARS system, and the same week North Korea rejected an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution criticizing its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has not disclosed the factory locations, production quantities for any of the drones shown, or further technical detail on the attack drone beyond what appears in the partly obscured photos.

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