North Korea is dramatically expanding its drone development programme, new satellite images have revealed.

Images taken above the Panghyon Airbase show the construction of large hangars and new designs of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), visible on runways and taxiways.

The airbase, some 90 miles north of Pyongyang, has become the “motherland for large UAVs”, a new report by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) quoted a source as saying.

Intelligence reports indicate that the nearby 6 January Factory is manufacturing the North’s most advanced new UAV, the Saetybol-class aircraft, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the American RQ-4 Global Hawk drone.

First unveiled at the Pyongyang weapons exhibition in 2023, the aircraft – whose name translates as “morning star” – has a wingspan of more than 110 feet and the distinctive bulbous nose and V-shaped tail that are consistent with the Global Hawk.