Cooperation between russia and North Korea poses a direct threat to South Korea due to North Korea's growing capabilities in drone production and deployment.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ministry of Defense have determined that Pyongyang is actively developing a range of UAVs, advancing its capabilities through cooperation with russia and Iran, as well as conducting cyberattacks against Western companies to obtain classified information.
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In this context, the focus is no longer on building drones but on developing artificial intelligence algorithms to create autonomous or semi-autonomous drones.
According to Bemil, there are reasonable grounds to believe that, in exchange for deploying additional troops to the war in Ukraine, North Korea may request advanced UAV technology from russia.
Ultimately, Pyongyang now views drones as a cheaper and asymmetric tool for striking South Korea. From Defense Express we would like to note that an incident of December 26, 2022, may have bolstered the DPRK's confidence.
At that time, the North Korean military launched an unknown, but apparently not large, number of reconnaissance drones and decoys. Aircraft and attack helicopters were deployed in an attempt to intercept them. As a result, one of the drones reached Seoul, while South Korea lost a KA-1 light attack aircraft.
Since then, South Korea has made some changes to the organization of its air defense forces, but they have not been sweeping. Moreover, the highly publicized use of eight 20 mm Vulcan cannons against FPV drones—with controversial results—may underscore Seoul's failure to fully grasp the realities of drone warfare on today's battlefield.
In contrast, Pyongyang—thanks to its active cooperation with russia and the combat experience it has gained in the war against Ukraine—may have far fewer illusions. However, its understanding of the tactics and strategy of drone warfare is greater.
At the same time, it is worth noting that even after North Korean troops joined кussia's war against Ukraine, Seoul did not change its policy toward Ukraine and continued to refuse to supply weapons to Kyiv.
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