Academy of Defence Science (North Korea)
North Korea's state weapons-development body behind the KN-23 ballistic missile Russia fires at Ukraine.
The Academy of Defence Science is North Korea’s state weapons-development organisation. It announced test launches of the KN-23 short-range ballistic missile — also called the Hwasong-11 — as reported by Military Times in 2021; since 2024 launches have been announced by North Korea’s Missile Administration.
According to researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, cited by Kyiv Independent, the missile is built at the February 11 Plant of the Ryongsong Machine Complex in Hamhung, the only known maker of Hwasong-11 missiles, and the plant has been expanding. Russia fires KN-23 missiles at Ukraine but neither designed nor built them.
Products
Missiles & loitering munitions
Hwasong-12
Intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of striking Guam from North Korean territory.
Introduced 2017
Hwasong-15
Two-stage liquid-fuel ICBM with demonstrated range to reach the continental United States.
Introduced 2017
Hwasong-17
North Korea's largest liquid-fuel ICBM, capable of reaching the continental United States with a MIRVed warhead.
Introduced 2022
Hwasong-8
Hypersonic glide vehicle atop an IRBM booster, designed to evade missile-defence intercept with a manoeuvring warhead.
Introduced 2021
KN-23
North Korea's solid-fuel Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missile, supplied to Russia from late 2023 and fired at Ukrainian cities from the Voronezh region.
Introduced 2019 · Updated 2026
KN-24
Short-range ballistic missile with a flat depressed trajectory designed to complicate interception.
Introduced 2019
KN-25
600 mm super-large multiple rocket launcher system with near-ballistic range.
Introduced 2019