North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected five major munitions factories within a single week last month, calling on engineers and officials to increase production of weapons ranging from intercontinental ballistic missile launchers and cruise missile engines to sniper and assault rifles.
The tour of weapons manufacturers, which was widely publicised in North Korean state media and included stops at factories producing rocket shells and drone engines, was part of a summer campaign to promote the “modernisation” of his country’s arms industry as Pyongyang seeks to cash in on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kim is expected to travel to Russia this week to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss weapons sales, according to a White House official. The planned trip follows a visit to Pyongyang in July by Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, whom Kim treated to a personal tour of a weapons exhibition that featured combat and surveillance drones and the latest generation of the regime’s ICBMs.