(Adnkronos) – North Korea is increasingly involved in Moscow’s war effort. Cluster munitions – that is, munitions that break apart in flight into multiple explosives or incendiary weapons that fall over a wide area – of North Korean manufacture are being used to arm small FPV drones used by Russian forces to strike targets in Ukraine, according to the Conflict Armament Research website and the New York Times, which reported the discovery. The remnants of such munitions were discovered by the British NGO’s personnel after an attack on Kherson last September 23.
North Korea has so far supplied Russia with artillery shells, ballistic and military missiles. Conflict Armament Research has also discovered that even the most advanced Russian munitions are manufactured using low-tech components produced by Western companies and transferred into the country despite Western sanctions. The North Korean ‘bomblets’ appear to be a copy of an American munition first used in combat during the first Gulf War, the M42 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition, and are the size of a flashlight battery. Their use is now limited due to the high failure rate in hitting targets and the risk posed by unexploded fragments.
