New Missile Factory to Ramp Up Supplies For Russia’s War Effort: North Korea Solidifies Position as Indispensable Provider

North Korea’s defence sector has inaugurated a new factory for the production of tactical ballistic missiles, which makes use of fully automated assembly lines that can reportedly handle material preparation, precision processing, and component assembly. According to state media, new production processes will not only increase output, but will also improve product quality, potentially allowing for the realisation of higher levels of precision and longer service lives for the missiles. KN-24 short range tactical ballistic missiles were seen on the factory floor, although it remains uncertain whether any other missile classes will be produced at the facility. Although North Korea has made significant strides in the quality of its machine tools and CNC machines, images from the country have indicated that civilian machinery such as CNC machines have been procured from China which could further significantly improve the products of local industry.

The expansion of North Korean missile production and the production of more capable missiles has significant implications not only for the country’s own security interests, but also for those of Russia and its adversaries in the Western world. The Russian Armed Forces currently rely very heavily on arms imports from North Korea, including anti-tank missiles, artillery shells, tactical ballistic missiles, and a wide range of other systems, with the first use of Korean ballistic missiles against Ukrainian targets confirmed in January 2024. The KN-24 is the shortest ranged and least costly ballistic missile class in production in North Korea, and was referred to in a 2020 U.S. Congressional Research Service report as an asset which “demonstrates the guidance system and in-flight manoeuvrability to achieve precision strikes.” The missile has an estimated 400 kilometre range and 500 kilogram weapons payload, making it significantly more compact than the Russian 9K720 which is significantly larger and delivers a similar sized payload to ranges of up to 500 kilometres.

North Korea’s defence sector had previously already significantly expanded KN-24 production, with 1000 of the missiles having been handed over to Korean People’s Army “frontline units” near the inter-Korean demilitarised zone on August 4, 2024. This made it one of the most widely deployed ballistic missile classes in the world. Large scale procurements by Russia have the potential to be a game changer for the Russian Army’s offensive capabilities in the Ukrainian theatre, with the KN-24 having significantly superior capabilities to the OTR-21 missiles in service, including approximately double the range, while being estimated to be far less costly than the 9K720 missiles used by the Iskander-M system. Complementing the expected expansion of deliveries of North Korean missiles, Russia’s defence sector has had notable successes in expanding the scale of production of Iskander-M systems domestically, allowing for increasingly intensified use from late 2023.