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World Aviation Defense & Security News - North Korea & Russia
 
 
North Korea might have requested Russia to provide it with Su-35 multirole fighter aircraft
 
North Korea has requested Russia to provide it with Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo daily has reported citing a military source. The particular proposal was made during the November visit to Russia of Choe Ryong Hae, a top Communist Party official and close ally to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said russian news agency TASS.
     

Russian Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E multirole fighter aircraft
     
Choe Ryong-hae, who visited Moscow as a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in November last year, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets,” the report said, citing the source.

North Korea is capable of producing many weapons systems domestically, “but it appears to have sought Russia’s help because building fighter jets requires more complex technologies,” the report said.

But because of international sanctions imposed on the North, Russia won’t likely sell it readily,” it said.

Choe, a member of the Politburo Presidium and Secretariat of the Workers’ Party of Korea, paid a seven-day visit to Russia. He met with President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and handed over to the Russian leader a personal message from Kim Jong Un.

The Su-35 (NATO code name: Flanker-E or "Super Flanker") is a single-seat, twin-engined multifunctional fighter aicraft designed and manufactured by the Russian Aviation Industry Sukhoi. Intended to gain air superiority and engage aerial and ground targets when performing autonomous and group combat actions, by day and night, in VFR and IFR weather conditions. Its first flight took place on February 19, 2008.

The Su-35 is a radically modernized version of the Su-27 aircraft to significantly enhance its combat effectiveness against aerial, ground and sea tagets. For better agility and takeoff/landing performance, the aircraft is provided with a canard. In terms of its aerodynamic configuration, the Su-35 is an unstable triplane (wing + horizontal tail + canard).