Zelensky says Russia is sharing jet-drone technology with North Korea

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, 4 October, that Russia has shared its jet-powered attack drone technology with North Korea, describing the transfer as part of a widening military partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang. He made the remarks to journalists at a press conference in Kyiv and answered without hesitation when asked whether the new drone know-how had gone to North Korea.

Zelensky said Russia was passing North Korea all of its technologies. He added that he could not say exactly which ballistic missile technologies had been shared, but that he believed such transfers were likely because North Korea had helped Russia with missiles during the war.

The claim concerns a class of weapon that has become central to Russia’s air campaign. Russia has upgraded its Shahed-type one-way attack drones into faster jet-powered versions, and the Kyiv Independent reported that the Geran-4 and Geran-5 can reach speeds of up to 500 and 600 kilometres per hour. Reuters, as reported by Taiwan’s Central News Agency, said Russia has sharply increased its use of jet drones against Ukraine in recent weeks and that Kyiv currently has no effective way to counter them other than fighter aircraft.

North Korea has been one of Russia’s main arms suppliers during the war. It provided millions of artillery shells early in the conflict and later ballistic missiles that Russia has used to strike Ukrainian cities. South Korea and Western governments have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang could receive help with weapons development from Moscow in return. Zelensky compared the pattern with Russia’s ties to Iran, which supplied the means to build Shahed drones early in the war.

Zelensky has been warning about North Korean involvement for weeks. About a week before Sunday’s remarks, he said Moscow was preparing to recruit another 10,000 North Korean military personnel to fight alongside Russian forces. According to Chosun Biz, which cited Reuters and Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, he also said North Korean soldiers captured more recently differed from the first contingent sent to Russia because they had absorbed Russian training, including how to operate drones and how to defend against electronic warfare.

He said that if Russia trains 50,000 North Korean troops for combat, the resulting knowledge would spread through hundreds of thousands of North Korean soldiers. Zelensky also said Ukraine is sharing information about the North Korean military with Japan, arguing that Japan has advanced technology but lacks experience of modern warfare, and that cooperation between Kyiv and Tokyo serves both countries.

The remarks come amid a diplomatic dispute between Kyiv and Seoul. Zelensky announced at the UN General Assembly last month that Ukraine had handed two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea. On 2 October, President Lee Jae-myung demanded that Kyiv acknowledge what Seoul describes as a confidentiality agreement covering the transfer and publicly apologise, warning of unspecified measures otherwise.

On Sunday Zelensky said South Korea had asked for the soldiers and noted that South Korea’s constitution treats them as its citizens. He did not respond directly to Lee’s complaint. The reports cited carried no response from Moscow or Pyongyang, and the scale of any transfer has not been independently verified.