North Korean submunition found in drone used to attack Ukraine, report finds

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN

(CNN) — A North Korean submunition has been found in a drone that was used to attack Ukraine last month, according to a new report, providing further insight into the extent that Pyongyang is helping Russia wage war on its Eastern European neighbor.

The modified submunition – a small part of a larger weapon – was recovered by Ukrainian authorities following an attack on the port city of Kherson in September, the UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research (CAR) said.

It was marked with Korean characters, some of which referenced the Juche calendar, which counts the years after the birth of North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung.

According to those characters, the submunition was produced in the year of Juche 89, or 2000 according to the Gregorian calendar, the report said.

While initially designed to be used in a rocket artillery system, it was modified to be attached to a first-person-view drone using a wooden stick, wire and duct tape, CAR said.

The finding “establishes yet another direct material link between the North Korean defence industry and the war in Ukraine,” the investigative organization said.

CAR’s investigation comes as Russia has ramped up its drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure while rapidly increasing its drone production.

Russia has built a massive drone factory to pump out thousands of weapons, many of which aren’t particularly fast or high-tech, but they are cheap enough for the Kremlin to launch hundreds in one night.

This is done in an effort to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses and decimate civilian morale, experts have said.

Meanwhile, North Korea has also ramped up its weapons program in the past few years, rapidly modernizing its armed forces, developing new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Pyongyang began sending large numbers of troops and equipment to Russia last year. In August, Ukrainian and US intelligence suggested there were roughly 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia, the first of whom were sent in the fall of 2024.

Of that initial deployment, about 4,000 soldiers have been killed or wounded, according to Western officials.

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CNN’s Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae contributed reporting.