Kim Jong Un calls for "absolute superiority" in drone technology at North Korean exhibition of attack drones

TLDR

• Kim Jong Un attended a North Korean drone exhibition on 29 October and called for "absolute superiority" in drone technology.¹²³
• KCNA says drones and cruise missiles hit an island target with 100 per cent accuracy; this is unverified.⁴
• TWZ describes a stealth flying-wing mockup and hundreds of quadcopters, and says there is no evidence the design can fly.⁵

North Korean state media reported on Friday 30 October that leader Kim Jong Un attended the "Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Development-2026" exhibition on Thursday, where he called for the country to seize "absolute superiority" in drone technology and announced unspecified steps to "rapidly expand and strengthen the unmanned aeronautical technology".¹²³ Xinhua, relaying the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), says the exhibition showed strategic, operational and tactical multipurpose drones as well as suicide attack drones, and that a firepower demonstration followed with tactical suicide attack drones, tactical cruise missiles and multipurpose drones, plus the first public firing of a 600 mm multiple rocket launcher dubbed "Sniper".³

The Korea Herald reports that KCNA claimed the drones and cruise missiles struck an island target with 100 per cent accuracy, which could not be independently verified, and that Kim told the defence sector to put unmanned weapon systems on a high-level artificial intelligence basis.⁴ KCNA did not disclose the location; the Korea Herald says structures visible in state media images suggested it may have been Wonsan Kalma Airport.⁴

TWZ, describing images released by state media, says the hall featured a mockup of a tailless flying-wing stealth drone, that North Korea has given no technical information about it, and that there is no evidence the country can get such an aircraft flying.⁵ It reports that more than 30 types of drone reportedly appeared, including the Saetbyol-4 and Saetbyol-9, first shown in 2023 and which it describes as resembling the RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper, loitering munitions resembling Israel's Harop and Russia's Lancet, and hundreds of small quadcopters, some of which appeared to carry containers associated with fibre-optic control.⁵

AP reports that South Korea's military detected about 10 short-range ballistic missiles launched from Wonsan on Thursday, the North's first ballistic firings in 17 days, and that experts say North Korean troops sent to Russia have most likely gained drone-warfare expertise.¹ Reuters says the display highlighted Kim's push to modernise the armed forces with drones and artificial intelligence as Pyongyang draws lessons from its forces' experience in Russia's war against Ukraine.²

Why it matters: the exhibition shows Pyongyang publicly making drones and military AI a stated priority, but the accuracy claim is KCNA's own and unverified, and TWZ reports no evidence that the flying-wing design is more than a mockup.¹⁴⁵