On the same day, the Korean Central News Agency reported on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's on-site guidance and a photo of him climbing onto a fuselage that appears to be an early alarm and giving instructions to executives inside where surveillance and reconnaissance equipment are installed. It also revealed Chairman Kim watching the aircraft take off and land. The aircraft appeared to have a radarome on top of a Russian-made IL-76 transport aircraft.
On this day, the military authorities said that North Korea is not yet at the stage of electrifying the model and that continuous analysis is needed in terms of strategic utilization.
Lee Sung-joon, head of the press office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replied to the related question, "The early warning aircraft (released by North Korea) still needs a new evaluation in terms of normal operation and effectiveness." He said, "We believe that it will be very dull and vulnerable to interception." Director Lee explained, "We believe that the internal devices and parts of the (aircraft) will be related to Russia, and the model itself is an improvement from what North Korea had."
While North Korea has been developing early alarms for many years, the possibility has also been raised that the development has accelerated in cooperation with Russia. Since 2017, North Korea has shown signs of developing early alarms, such as remodeling the upper part of the Ilyushin transport plane as a platform, said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification. Researcher Hong observed, "There is a possibility that Russia has recently accelerated by providing technical help to North Korea so that it can modify the existing model (to an early alarm)." He believed that North Korea is likely to be receiving technical support for modernizing conventional power as one of the considerations for sending troops from Russia.
[Reporter Kim Sung Hoon]
