The Times: Improved North Korean KN-23 Ballistic Missiles Now Comparable in Accuracy to Russian Iskanders

Military Expert Tucker: Russia Helped North Korea Modernize its Armed Forces

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.

Launch of the KN-23 ballistic missile
Launch of the KN-23 ballistic missile
Russia is also helping North Korea develop and produce KN-23 ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
Maxim Tucker, military expert

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.

Read also on the topic:

Details have emerged about a new Russian ballistic missile that may be a clone of the KN-23

Bulgarian Military: North Korean missiles are as accurate as Soviet OTR-23 Oka

"Capable of carrying a nuclear warhead": Military Watch Magazine spotted Pukguksong-2 launchers in a photo with a railway train of weapons for Russia

Sources
The Times

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