North Korea's frontline blunders: Russian allies in disarray
Along with North Korean soldiers sent to fight against Ukrainians, North Korean weaponry has reached the front. As it turns out, Russians do not always know what equipment their allies are using. In some cases, this proves to be tragically consequential.
The North Korean troops sent into battle have exposed the weakness of Kim Jong Un's army. His soldiers fight using archaic tactics that are ill-suited to the realities of modern warfare, resulting in high casualties.
According to estimates by the South Korean agency NIS, by the end of the first ten days of January, at least 300 North Korean soldiers had died, and 2,700 had been wounded. An unknown number were captured despite their leader's appeals, encouraging his subjects to commit suicide.
Although Russia provides some of the weaponry for the North Korean contingent, the soldiers from the DPRK also have their own equipment, including anti-aircraft systems.
Tor-NK – North Korean anti-aircraft system
Russians boasted about destroying a "Western-made radar station," documenting their success with a recording of an FPV drone attack. Analysis of the shared material indicates that the Russians attacked not Ukrainians but their own ally.
The "radar station" they destroyed is a North Korean variant of the 9K330 Tor anti-aircraft system, known as Tor-NK.
Although the Tor system entered service in the USSR in the mid-1980s, Pyongyang unveiled its own variant of this weapon only in 2020. The North Korean dictator thus likely sent his most modern weapon into battle.
Characteristics of the Tor-NK system
The Russian Tor is a tracked vehicle system. In the case of the North Korean variant, a wheeled trailer was used instead of a tracked chassis, on which all elements of the system are placed.
As noted by the Milmag service, the purpose of such a configured system is probably stationary defence, as the wheeled trailer limits its mobility. However, it provides full autonomy – each trailer can detect and track targets and guide and launch missiles. The target detection range is estimated at about 32 kilometres, with the ability to destroy them at 16-19 kilometres.
