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The Saetbyol-4 (샛별-4), also known as Morning Star-4, is North Korea's most advanced high-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance drone, reflecting the country’s ongoing efforts to modernize its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Developed as part of a broader strategy to enhance situational awareness and expand its unmanned aerial capabilities, the Saetbyol-4 closely mirrors the design of the U.S. RQ-4B Global Hawk, signaling Pyongyang’s focus on emulating proven Western technology. The drone has an impressive wingspan of approximately 40 meters (131 feet), making it one of the largest UAVs produced by North Korea, and a length of around 12 meters (39 feet), slightly shorter than its American counterpart. Its design features a high-aspect-ratio wing configuration and a distinctive V-tail, optimized for high-altitude, long-endurance flight, while its single-engine turbofan is believed to be adapted from civilian aircraft engines, demonstrating the regime’s resourcefulness in UAV engineering.

Equipped with a suite of sophisticated surveillance systems, the Saetbyol-4 carries synthetic aperture radar (SAR), electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) cameras, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment, enabling it to collect a wide range of strategic and tactical data across extended operational ranges. Its endurance and sensor package allow for persistent monitoring over the Korean Peninsula, nearby maritime regions, and potentially even further abroad, depending on deployment. Operational testing has taken place at Panghyon Airbase, where imagery shows large-scale hangars and infrastructure suggestive of plans for mass production and regular deployment. These tests indicate that North Korea intends to integrate the Saetbyol-4 into a broader UAV network capable of supporting both military intelligence missions and regional surveillance operations.

Strategically, the Saetbyol-4 represents a significant step in North Korea’s military modernization and its pursuit of asymmetric capabilities to counter technologically advanced adversaries. By emulating the U.S. Global Hawk, the drone aims to provide North Korean forces with enhanced situational awareness, improved targeting intelligence, and the ability to monitor adversary movements with greater accuracy. While its external design is strikingly similar to Western models, its actual performance, avionics sophistication, sensor resolution, and endurance remain uncertain, though it is widely recognized as a major advancement for the North Korean ISR program. The development of the Saetbyol-4 underscores Pyongyang’s growing reliance on unmanned systems for strategic advantage and highlights the potential shift in regional security dynamics, as the drone could enable more autonomous and extended reconnaissance operations without putting pilots at risk. Overall, the Saetbyol-4 serves as both a technological milestone and a strategic asset, signaling North Korea’s intent to close the capability gap with global UAV leaders and to strengthen its surveillance, early-warning, and intelligence-gathering infrastructure in support of military operations.

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