North Korea Modernizes Main Battle Tank Production Plant
10:44 GMT 08.08.2023 (Updated: 13:37 GMT 18.09.2023)
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North Korea has purportedly been aspiring to mass-produce a new tank design, which was first shown off during a military parade back in 2020. Recently, the nation’s state television released the first footage of the next generation tank at a firing range, prompting speculation in the media regarding the production site.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been making major renovations at a factory for the production of its main battle tank, as well as tracked launchers, according to Planet Labs satellite imagery analyzed by media reports.
After several years of delays, overhauls purportedly took place at the Kusong tank plant complex, officially called the “machine plant managed by Ho Chol Yong," located in the northwest of the country in North Pyongyang Province, between October 2022 and June 2023. A spacious new manufacturing hall - twice the size of the existing one - was completed, according to the analysis. The entire renovation and new construction project ostensibly incorporated more than a dozen production-related structures, spanning an area of 9.3 hectares (0.093 square kilometers).
© Photo : Planet Labs\NK Pro.Screengrab appearing to show the Kusong tank plant in North Korea after latest renovations according to an image taken by Planet Labs dated June 30, 2023, and edited by NK Pro.
Screengrab appearing to show the Kusong tank plant in North Korea after latest renovations according to an image taken by Planet Labs dated June 30, 2023, and edited by NK Pro.
© Photo : Planet Labs\NK Pro.
North Korean state television recently showed footage of the next generation battle tank being tested in combat exercises at a firing range and using an unspecified munition type from its main gun to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Media reports claimed to have geolocated the footage to the proving grounds in Kusong, south of the factory.
The parade was timed to celebrate the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, and featured North Korea's Hwasong-17 and solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as overflights of unmanned aerial vehicles, according to North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, while visiting Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss issues of global and regional security, also attended the parade.
The DPRK's new tank was previously unveiled in October 2020, at a military parade.
© Photo : Rodong SinmunScreengrab of “Prototype” tanks first introduced at the military parade in North Korea on October 10, 2020.
Screengrab of “Prototype” tanks first introduced at the military parade in North Korea on October 10, 2020.
© Photo : Rodong Sinmun
The report about the upgrade to the Kusong tank plant comes as North Korea has been warning of an unprecedented military buildup in the Asia-Pacific region. Besides an ongoing military buildup in Japan, which has been multiplying its defense spending, the US has been beefing up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific zone along with the UK and Australia within the framework of the tripartite AUKUS alliance. The US Indo-Pacific Command earlier openly cited the goal of "deterring" China, Russia, and the DPRK.
In June, the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Institute for American Studies warned that Pyongyang would continue to boost its self-defense capabilities if Washington persists with its hostile policy against North Korea.