North Korean state media has revealed footage displaying the manufacturing of a brand new technology of self-propelled howitzer, the Juche-107, which is anticipated to considerably improve the capabilities of frontline models. Manufacturing of the 155mm weapons was inspected by a number of army and civilian management figures, together with the chairman of the ruling Korean Employees’ Social gathering Kim Jong Un, who personally revealed that the brand new howitzer has a spread exceeding 60 kilometres. The Korean Folks’s Army has for many years fielded the world’s largest peacetime artillery drive, and has produced and stockpiled associated ordinance on an unparalleled scale. This has allowed North Korea to function a major provider of ordinance to the Russian Armed Forces for operations within the Ukrainian theatre, with the variety of rounds delivered numbering within the tens of hundreds of thousands.
The Juche-107 howitzer was first unveiled in 2018, though plenty of adjustments to the design have been made since then. The publication of the newest footage seems to point that the howitzer is now going into manufacturing on a bigger scale. The design is especially notable for its 155mm NATO normal calibre, the place earlier North Korean self-propelled weapons had had both Soviet 152mm calibres, or the distinctive 170mm calibre for heavier longer vary weapons. The transition from 152 to 155mm weapons follows an analogous transition within the Chinese language Folks’s Liberation Army, and should lead to a discount of stockpiles of 152mm artillery rounds as these are depleted by mass exports to Russia.
Whereas Soviet calibre 125mm tank weapons have continued to be favoured in each China and North Korea over NATO normal 120mm weapons, the transition from 152 to 155mm howitzers permits longer ranges to be achieved, and in addition supplies standardisation on world markets. For North Korea, the transition additionally supplies interoperability with allied Chinese language forces, and permits captured South Korean and U.S. artillery rounds for use. It’s probably that advances in associated applied sciences will continued to be utilized in parallel each as improve packages for 152mm weapons and to incrementally modernise the Juche-107. The export of 152mm howitzers to Russia has supplied a chance to make the transition to the Juche-107 extra rapidly.
It stays probably that 152mm howitzers will proceed to serve within the Korean Folks’s Army for many years, primarily as a result of sheer scale on which such weapons are already fielded. The introduction of the Juche-107 will thus drive the Army to discipline three separate calibres of artillery rounds. Whereas the Juche-107 is anticipated to regularly substitute 152mm weapons in service, the way forward for the nation’s very massive arsenal of 170mm weapons stays extremely unsure. Though some analysts have speculated that 170mm weapons might be phased out of service and changed by the brand new standardised 155mm weapons, the necessity to maximise vary on account of circumstances on the Korean Peninsula, and the superior demonstrated efficiency of 170mm weapons, means these are prone to be retained in service.
Offering uncommon perception into the capabilities of North Korean artillery, commander of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate Lieutenant Basic Kyrylo Budanov in June 2025 singled out the efficiency of 170mm self-propelled howitzers, observing: “Sadly, this gun is demonstrating itself fairly effectively in battle. It’s firing from fairly a protracted vary, and it’s fairly good when it comes to accuracy.” “We now have knowledge that the Russian Federation was supplied 120 items. However I feel that provide will proceed as a result of these weapons are demonstrating themselves fairly effectively. That is unlucky for us as a result of that is artillery for long-range firing,” he added. 120 weapons would in North Korean service equip roughly 4 military artillery regiments. It stays unsure whether or not the 170mm howitzers have been in service within the Russian Army, or whether or not they have been operated by Korean Folks’s Army models stationed in Russia, or whether or not they have been operated by each companies, with the third choice showing to be the almost certainly.
Slightly than changing 170mm artillery with the Juche-107 weapons, it seems probably that both the capabilities of 170mm howitzers will proceed to be improved, and {that a} clear sheet subsequent technology 170mm howitzer will ultimately be thought of for improvement, probably by implementing a number of applied sciences and design options first examined within the Juche-107. Though North Korean artillery capabilities are world main, no nation on the planet has produced a comparable howitzer to the Chinese language SH16, which seems to guide the world in a variety of its design options, most notably its ranges of automation. The opportunity of Chinese language know-how transfers and assist in growing the Juche-107, together with enhanced future iterations of the design, can’t be dominated out. The degrees of defence cooperation reached with Russia have additionally raised the likelihood that applied sciences and knowhow from the Russian 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV howitzer program program may be shared with North Korea’s Juche-107 program. The Russian howitzer started to enter service in restricted numbers from 2023, and stays one of many few operational Russian floor warfare methods thought of genuinely world main in its capabilities.
