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Kim oversaw the testing of “various kinds of reconnaissance and suicide drones” produced by North Korea’s Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The attack drones will be used for “various tactical attack missions,” according to KCNA, noting that both drone systems have been equipped with “new artificial intelligence.”

Kim reaffirmed his desire to increase the production of “unmanned equipment and artificial intelligence” and stressed the need for a long-term strategy to support “the rapid development” of “intelligent drones,” which he described as “the trend of modern warfare.”

According to the images captured during the tests on Tuesday and Wednesday, attack drones reportedly successfully hit ground targets, including military vehicles.

Despite images that were made available by KCNA, Kim was seen boarding an airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft and walking with aides near a recently developed unmanned aerial reconnaissance aircraft, which appeared to be larger than a fighter jet.

The North, which had a radar dome on the fuselage similar to the Boeing-manufactured Peace Eye operated by the South Korean air force, has unveiled such an aircraft for the first time since the photos.

Analysts had previously reported on North Korea’s plans to build an early warning system after discovering that Pyongyang was using commercial satellite imagery to transform a cargo aircraft made of Russian-made Il-76 into an early-warning role.

An AEW aircraft would add to North Korea’s existing land-based radar systems, according to an IISS report from last year, even though just one aircraft would not suffice.

Kim was also given information on intelligence-gathering abilities as well as electronic jamming and attack systems that the nation’s electronic warfare group had recently developed, according to KCNA during his visit to the test site.

In exchange for Kim’s donation of thousands of North Korean troops and weapons to support Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, the South Korean government and analysts have repeatedly warned about the potential transfer of sensitive Russian military technology to North Korea.

The Seoul-based military reported on Thursday that North Korea has already given Russia an additional 3, 000 troops and other ammunition this year.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), “an additional 3, 000 troops were reportedly sent as reinforcements between January and February,” adding that 4, 000 of the initial 11, 000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia in 2024 are thought to have been killed or wounded.

According to a report from the JCS, “North Korea continues to provide missiles, artillery equipment, and ammunition.”

It is estimated that North Korea has so far provided a sizable number of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), as well as about 220 170mm self-propelled gun units and 240mm multiple rocket launchers, according to the statement.

As Israel’s army continues its renewed offensive against the besieged enclave, a Hamas spokesperson has been killed by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, according to reports from news outlets.

Israeli fighter jets bombed Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua’s tent shelter in the city of Jabalia early on Thursday morning, according to Al-Aqsa television and the Shehab News Agency.

According to Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, Hind Khoudary, there were also some more people who were hurt in the attack, including children.

Khoudary claimed that the Israeli military carried out the latest wave of attacks in the Strip, including one that claimed the lives of six members of the same family in Gaza City.

Israel resumed its intense bombing campaign and ground operations in Gaza on March 18 with the abrupt end of a tense two-month ceasefire. In an effort to persuade Hamas to release the remaining captives in the war-torn enclave, Israel has since killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

In addition, several senior Hamas figures have been killed recently. Ismail Barhoum, the head of finances and institutions at Hamas’ political office, was among the five people killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday at Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Israeli fighter jets also bombed Palestinian refugees’ tents in Khan Younis on the same day. Sallah al-Bardaweel, a well-known Hamas politician and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was killed along with his wife.

Both men were members of Hamas’ political office, a 20-member decision-making body, with 11 of them dead since the start of the war in late 2023, according to the Reuters news agency.

During the southern Israel attack on October 7, 2023, Hamas still holds 59 of the roughly 250 captives.

Since Hamas launched its ground and air assault on the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli military has killed at least 139 people in Israel and injured at least 183 Palestinians, 828 others, and at least 1,139 in the country.

According to statistics from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 80% of the casualties are women and children, with more than 50% of those killed coming from Israel’s reprisal attacks ten days ago.

The Israeli military has forcibly displaced 142, 000 Palestinians since March 18, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA), which only adds to the already dire humanitarian situation brought on by Israel’s ongoing restrictions on aid entering Gaza.

In the midst of weeks of tense and contentious ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the death toll in Gaza is rising. The mediators, including the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, were unable to secure a three-phase agreement extension after it expired on March 1.

Hamas claims that Israel purposefully undermined negotiations to end fighting permanently.

After Hamas’ demands for an extension, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he had ordered Israeli forces to retaliate against Gaza.

In light of reports that First Vice President Riek Machar, a long-term adversary of the country’s President Salva Kiir, has been arrested, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has urged all parties to exercise restraint.

Following rumor that Machar had been detained at his home in the capital, Juba, UMISS chief Nicholas Haysom said the nation was at risk of losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” if it retreated to “a state of war”.

The leaders of the nation are currently at risk of returning to a country that has already experienced widespread conflict in a statement released early on Thursday.

A return to fighting “will ravage South Sudan as well as the entire region,” Haysom continued.

A convoy of 20 heavily armed vehicles “forcefully entered” the first vice president’s residence in Juba on Wednesday and disarmed his bodyguards, according to Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army In Opposition (SPLM/IO) party.

According to the SPLM/IO, the country’s defense minister and head of national security were present in the convoy that issued the vice president’s arrest warrant.

According to a statement released by Machar’s chairman’s committee for foreign relations, Reath Muoch Tang, an arrest warrant was issued to him despite undetermined charges, according to a statement.

No legal procedures, such as revokeling his immunity, have been followed, Tang said, making this action a flagrant violation of the Constitution and the Revitalized Peace Agreement.

According to him, “the First Vice President’s arrest without the proper process threatens the stability of the country.”

A government spokeswoman could not be reached for comment right away.

The UN reported earlier on Wednesday that Vice President Machar and forces loyal to President Kiir had clashed outside the country’s capital Juba over the course of the past 24 hours.

Negotiating a peace deal stalled

In recent weeks, Kiir and Machar have been at odds with a power-sharing agreement because of tensions caused by government troops loyal to the president fighting rebels from the so-called “White Army,” which has close ties to Machar.

The petroleum minister and the army deputy head have been taken into custody by Kiir’s government in response to fighting that has erupted in the northeastern Upper Nile State since late February.

A military base and two military training facilities in the vicinity of Juba have been attacked by government forces since Monday, according to Machar’s party.

The key provision of the 2018 peace agreement, which aims to unite government and opposition forces, was the establishment of the training centers.

The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF), a force-based militia affiliated with the Kiir-aligned army, has not confirmed any of the incidents, despite the accusation made on Monday that Machar’s forces carried out offensive maneuvers from one of the bases.

According to analysts, an 73-year-old Kiir has been attempting to ensure Machar’s succession and undermine him politically for months through cabinet reshuffles.

Soon after gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan, the youngest nation in the world, engaged in a bloody civil war with Machar, an ethnic Nuer, who was allied with Kiir, an ethnic Dinka.

Prior to the pair’s formation of a government of national unity in the wake of the conflict, which claimed more than 40 000 lives.

Many people in Juba are uneasy about the clashes and most recent political upheaval between Kiir and Machar.

As of Thursday, March 27, 2018, here is a roundup of significant events.

Fighting

• Emergency services and Ukrainian officials claim that nine people were hurt and severely damaged when Russian forces launched a massive drone attack on Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.
• According to regional governor Serhiy Lysak, a Russian drone attack also sparked fires in Dnipro, which is located in the city center. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
• Following an attack by Russian drones, the mayor of Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, reported early on Wednesday that there were power outages in the city.
• According to the Ukrainian military, 56 of the 117 drones launched by Russia were shot down by Ukrainian air defense units.
• Twelve members of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, which led the defense of Mariupol in the early stages of the conflict, were given lengthy prison sentences by a Russian military court. The defendants received sentences of between 13 and 23 years in prison for alleged terrorist acts and for violently seizing or retaining power.
• A landmine allegedly laid by the Ukrainian military in the Belgorod region of Russia allegedly caused the death of Russian state TV journalist Anna Prokofieva and seriously injured her cameraman Dmitry Volkov.

 Ceasefire

After Washington announced separate agreements on Tuesday to halt strikes in the Black Sea and against energy targets, Ukraine and Russia both accused one another of breaking a truce on attacks against energy facilities that were brokered by the US.
• Ihor Zhovkva, a senior official in the Ukrainian presidential system, claimed that Russia has attacked at least eight Ukrainian energy facilities since March 18 despite Moscow’s claim that it has stopped them.
• According to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request for a moratorium on attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is being carried out by the country’s armed forces.
• The Ukrainian military refuted Russian claims that it attacked energy facilities in the Russian-occupied Crimea and the Kursk and Bryansk regions.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claimed that the US had informed Kyiv that the truce agreements with Russia were effective right away. The Black Sea ceasefire agreement, according to the Kremlin, wouldn’t become effective until a sanctioned Russian state bank was reconnected to Swift, an international payment system. Leaders in Europe predicted that this wouldn’t occur until Russia reneged from Ukraine.
• In Paris, President Zelenskyy expressed his hope for an unconditional ceasefire from Moscow following his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a summit in Paris to discuss Ukraine.

I want to highlight France’s efforts to protect us from Russian airstrikes. Your “Mirages,” which are French combat aircraft, have performed very well in particular. They have already joined our air defense system and are assisting us, which is particularly grateful of me. twitter.com/ccHbSvWTKM

• Moscow and the US are still in close communication, according to the Kremlin, and it is pleased with how things have turned out for Washington. We are pleased with the results our dialogue is getting, spokesman for the Kremlin Peskov said, “we are satisfied with how pragmatically and constructively our dialogue is proceeding.”
• According to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US will evaluate demands made by Russia after it “in principle” agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine in the Black Sea to allow safe navigation.
• Rubio promised to “present that” to US President Donald Trump in order to determine the outcome of the meeting by “more fully understanding what the Russian position is, or what they’re asking in exchange.”
• Trump acknowledged that Moscow may be “dragging its feet” despite saying in an interview that he believed Russia wanted to end its conflict with Ukraine.
• The UN atomic watchdog’s Rafael Grossi predicted that the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, which is controlled by Russia, could return to operation in the first few months of a ceasefire. However, it would take more than a year to restart all six reactors. Following what it claimed were reports of a significant diesel spillage, Ukraine has accused Moscow of being incapable of managing safety at the plant. The reports have been labeled as “fake” by Russia.
• German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed the US’s mediation efforts but warned against being misled by President Putin, claiming genuine dialogue cannot occur when ceasefires are constantly tied to new demands and concessions.
• According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, a free of charge agreement to protect civilian vessels and port infrastructure “will be a crucial contribution to global food security and supply chains.”

military assistance

• As he accused Russia of reinterpreting and rewriting recent limited ceasefire agreements, President Macron announced that France would provide some $2.15 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine.
• In light of rising tensions over the transatlantic alliance’s future and divergent opinions on Russia, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned the US and Europe against any temptation to “go it alone” in terms of security. After it became known that a journalist was a participant in a group Signal chat facilitated by national security aides, Rutte added that Europe could still have faith in the US government.
• Rutte warned that a “total lack of confidence” will prevent normalizing relations with Russia even after the Ukrainian war has ended, stating that it will take decades.
• Unnamed European officials told the Reuters news agency that as a result of their political and logistical constraints and the possibility that Russia and the US would oppose their plans, that European efforts to create security arrangements for Ukraine are shifting from sending troops to other options.

Economics

• President Trump will not hesitate to impose sanctions on Russia as needed, according to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who informed Fox News that Ukraine may sign an economic deal the following week.
• Following a contentious Oval Office meeting between US and Ukrainian leaders last month, Kyiv and Washington have “back on track,” according to Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff.
• Ariston Holding, an Italian company that heats water in Italy, reported that Ariston Holding had regained control of its Russian unit after President Putin revoked his previous-year order to seize it in response to Western sanctions.