SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his country to seize “absolute superiority” in drone technology and to make high-level artificial intelligence in unmanned weapons systems a top priority, state media KCNA reported on Friday, as Pyongyang staged a firepower demonstration of suicide drones, cruise missiles and heavy rocket launchers.

Source: Reuters, Oct 30, 2026

Kim attended an exhibition and demonstration of unmanned aeronautical technology on Thursday, KCNA said. The demonstration featured tactical suicide attack drones, tactical cruise missiles, multipurpose drones and 600mm multiple rocket launchers, according to KCNA. KCNA photographs showed unmanned aerial vehicles bearing the North Korean Air Force's emblem, and one image appeared to show a drone crashing into a military vehicle and exploding in a ball of flame, Reuters reported.

Pursuing superiority in drone technology was “an indispensable option” given the changing nature of modern warfare, Kim said, according to KCNA. The Associated Press reported that Kim announced steps to “rapidly expand and strengthen” the North's unmanned aeronautical technology, and that KCNA photos showed him watching the weapons soar while his teenage daughter clapped beside him.

Source: Associated Press, Oct 30, 2026

Lessons drawn from Ukraine war

The display highlighted Kim's push to modernise North Korea's armed forces with drones and AI as Pyongyang draws lessons from Russia's war against Ukraine and other global conflicts, Reuters reported. Kim ordered mass production of suicide attack drones in November 2024, oversaw tests of AI-equipped versions in March 2025 and in September 2025 called AI a top priority in weapons modernisation, state media said. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea's Kyungnam University, told Reuters North Korea is transforming its military capabilities through drones and AI, and that by staging such a comprehensive weapons display Pyongyang is trying to shut off the possibility of dialogue or negotiations with South Korea.

The exhibition came on the same day South Korea's military said North Korea had fired around 10 projectiles, including short-range ballistic missiles, towards the sea. The two Koreas remain technically at war, their 1950-53 conflict having ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and the North's weapons claims are carried by its state media and cannot be independently verified from outside the country.