Russian forces made a mistake and knocked out an important North Korean weapon

When North Korean forces were deployed to Russia in late 2024, they brought a lot of powerful equipment with them, including a rare air defense system that was reportedly recently destroyed by Russian forces. 

While the situation is unclear, what we do know is that North Korean forces deployed a customized Russian-designed Tor air defense system and that this weapon may have been destroyed by a Russian drone attack. 

On January 10th, the pro-Russian Telegram channel Voenacher reported that Russian forces destroyed what it claimed was a “Western-made radar station” somewhere in the Kursk region according to Army Recognition. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @voenacher

Russian forces used a first-person view (FPV) drone against the system. Photo and video evidence of the strike was published by Voenacher. However, Forbes reported that other analysts revealed the system Russia destroyed wasn’t Western-made but rather a North Korean weapon. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @voenacher / edited by The Daily Digest

“It took a few days for outside observers to figure out exactly what the Russians blew up in Kursk,” wrote David Axe. According to Polish analyst WarVehicleTracker, the weapon destroyed was a North Korean Tor surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. 

Photo Credit: X @LXSummer1

“It seems that what was originally claimed to be a ‘Western-made radar system,’ is very likely to be a North Korean Tor SAM version on a cab chassis,” WarVehicleTracker said on X alongside republished images of the vehicle in question. 

Photo Credit: X @LXSummer1

WarVehicleTracker went on to explain that it was funny Russia would have destroyed one of their own surface-to-air missile systems and suggested that Russian forces may have been “left in the dark about the arrival” of the North Korean systems. 

Newsweek reported that the Ukrainian military and political analyst Alexander Kovalenk also believed the air defense system Russia destroyed was North Korea. He hinted the situation could suggest that Russia has a problem with its air defenses. 

Kovalenk noted that it is already known that Russia lacks air defense systems and that it is one of Moscow’s “most catastrophically deficient categories.” However, whether or not Russia has destroyed a key allied weapon has not been confirmed. 

If the North Korean Tor was the weapon hit by Russia, it would represent another major problem for Ukraine and its allies. 

The transfer of a North Korean Tor to Russia hasn’t been reported by Western or South Korean intelligence, something Kovalenk suggested could mean logistics supply chains between the two nations aren’t being tracked by Western or South Korean intelligence. 

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