North Korea ‘modifying’ Russian jet as early warning aircraft: think tank

North Korea is “making progress” in modifying a Russian aircraft to become its first airborne early warning, or AEW, platform, a British think tank said.

An AEW aircraft is an airborne radar system generally used to detect incoming aircraft, ships, vehicles and missiles to provide guidance to defending forces to take them on.

Work on converting one of the three Ilyushin IL-76 Candid aircraft that Russia delivered in the early 1990s is being carried out at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies on Monday, based on analysis of satellite images.

In late 2023, one of the three aircraft was moved to a separate maintenance area at the airport with a new fenced area around it, the IISS said, adding that an obvious possibility was that the aircraft was being converted for an AEW role or at least as an AEW radar testbed.

While the IL-76 airframe offers a good, well-tested basis for such a conversion, it may also present some challenges for North Korea’s limited aviation industry, it explained. 

“Whether North Korea has sought to develop such a system wholly domestically or is utilizing external assistance, possibly as part of its renewed relationship with Russia, is unknown,” it noted. 

“There is much that remains to be determined regarding North Korea’s IL-76 modification program. But the extent of the regime’s ambitions in terms of military capability are considerable, as has been its ability on occasion to spring development surprises.”

Radio Free Asia reported in January that North Korea had demolished or repurposed nine runways or airfields, which experts said could signal a shift away from manned aircraft in favor of missiles and drones.

At that time Cho Han Bum, a senior researcher at the South Korea-based Korea Institute for National Unification, said that the institute detected evidence at Pyongyang International Airport that the IL-76 aircraft were being converted into early warning aircraft, but that would be impossible without Russia’s help.

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Separately, Yang Uk, a research Fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in South Korea, also said there was a possibility of the North introducing additional aircraft and Russia’s help couldn’t be ruled out. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea for talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un in June when they announced a partnership treaty, agreeing to offer each other military assistance “without delay” if either were attacked. They also underscored their shared defiance of Western sanctions and expanded cooperation in various sectors.

Russia has been cozying up to North Korea since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

The United States says North Korea has supplied Russia with large amounts of weapons for the war in Ukraine, in particular artillery rounds and ballistic missiles, although both Russia and North Korea deny that.

In exchange for its weapons, North Korea is suspected of getting Russian technological assistance for its space program. 

Edited by Mike Firn.