Fires guided missiles

North Korean tanks spotted in Ukraine

A Ukrainian reconnaissance unit made the explosive discovery in a field not far from the front near Kharkiv.(Bild: OSINT, Krone KREATIV)

The Russian-North Korean alliance is increasingly making itself felt on the front in Ukraine. Now that the use of missiles from North Korea has already been proven, a picture of a drone is causing a stir. It shows a North Korean armored vehicle.

Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin recently sealed close military cooperation during the latter's visit. Russia is hoping for supplies of weapons and military equipment for the war of aggression against Ukraine. The first direct consequence of this could be the sighting of a reconnaissance drone near the front near Kharkiv.

Rotatable launching device
One image of the mission is said to show a Bulsae-4 anti-tank system - a North Korean-made system consisting of a wheeled tank on which a rotating missile launcher is mounted. Only very little information is known about Bulsae-4, but what is special about it is that it fires guided missiles whose trajectory can be changed after launch.

Hits tanks in the most sensitive areas
The wheeled armored vehicle is based on the Soviet BTR-80 infantry fighting vehicle and, like the American Javelin anti-tank missile, the guided missiles should be able to hit tanks from above - in other words, where they are usually most vulnerable. The missiles should be able to hit their target within a radius of up to ten kilometers.

A Ukrainian reconnaissance unit made the explosive discovery in a field not far from the front line near Kharkiv.(Bild: OSINT, Krone KREATIV)

The Bulsae-4 missiles have an operational range of up to ten kilometers.(Bild: Nordkoreanisches Staatsfernsehen)

The system was first praised on North Korean television in 2016 - but it is completely unclear how many such tanks the isolated country has actually produced.

A welcome practical text in combat conditions
While military bloggers are reporting that one such tank has already fired six missiles towards Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces is not yet willing to confirm that the sighting is actually a Bulsae-4.

In any case, it has already been confirmed that North Korea has been supplying Russia with artillery shells and missiles for months. The delivery of military vehicles could now be a welcome practical test for Kim Jong Un. After all, it will give his military valuable data on the performance of the system under real combat conditions.