Video Gives First Confirmation of North Korean MLRS Deployment by Russia (2025)

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (HUR), gave details of confirmed and anticipated North Korean support to Russia to the military issues website The War Zone in November.

Budanov said that, along with around 12,000 troops and millions of rounds of artillery ammunition, the DPRK had provided around 120 170mm Koksan self-propelled guns (SPG) and 120 M-1991 “Juche 100” 240mm multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) since August last year, saying more was on the way.

His comments seemed to concur with reports published in Forbes and the New York Times.

Budanov’s assessment was supported by Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, in a Nov. 29 post on his Telegram channel. While several Koksan SPGs have been encountered by Ukrainian forces, with several having been destroyed in fighting in both Russia’s Kursk region and in the Donbas, there had been no confirmed sightings of the M-1991s until last week.

On Saturday, Ukrainian milblogger Yurii Butusov posted a video on Telegram that confirmed the presence of the rocket launcher in Russian hands. The footage appeared to show troops fitting an anti-drone protection “cope cage” over the M-1991 inside an unidentified building

The Juche 100 was upgraded and renamed in 2012 in honor of Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea when it was first unveiled during a military parade on April 15 on what would have been his 100th birthday. Designated M-1991 by the US, indicating the year it was first identified, it is likely to be a derivative of the BM-24s supplied to Pyongyang by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and the earlier 12 tube version designated M-1985.

The M-1991 is a 240mm multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) consisting of 22 tubes arranged in an 8-8-6 configuration mounted on a 6x6 militarized commercial truck. The system is capable of firing unguided, spin-stabilized free-flight rockets carrying a range of warheads including high explosive fragmentation, smoke, incendiary, and chemical payloads.

While the rockets lack any form of guidance each vehicle is firing all of its 22 projectiles to a range of between 40 and 60 kilometers (25-38 miles) in 45 seconds to provide a saturation attack against large targets, such as forward defensive positions, military bases, and urban areas. In service with DPRK forces the M-1991s are deployed in batteries of five launchers organized into battalions of three batteries.

While the Juche 100 / M-1991 is not as accurate as newer precision-guided systems or the ubiquitous first-person view (FPV) attack drones, its potential ability to deliver concentrated mass firepower poses yet another operational threat to Ukrainian forces facing what is anticipated to be renewed Russian spring offensives.