Russia has provided significant assistance to North Korea in improving ballistic missiles and drones, as well as in modernizing its Armed Forces. Seoul should take this into account, writes military expert Maxim Tucker, citing intelligence data in an article for the British publication The Times.
Russia is also helping North Korea develop and produce KN-23 ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
Tucker claims that the tactical and technical characteristics of the KN-23 have significantly improved. The accuracy and reliability of North Korean missiles, thanks to military-technical cooperation with Moscow, have become comparable to Russian missiles for the Iskander OTRK.
The use of KN-23 in combat helped identify and eliminate vulnerabilities. Now, North Korea is producing ballistic missiles of a different level than in 2023, the expert concluded.
Earlier, the Western Defence blog wrote that the KN-23 is a North Korean version of the Russian Iskander OTRK missile. When creating the MLRS,Russian developments were adopted.
KN-23 missile characteristics:
- length - 7.5 m
- diameter - 0.95 m
- weight - from 3.4 t
- flight range - 690 km
It should be noted that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has not officially confirmed information about the supply and use of KN-23 missiles by the Russian military.
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