Russia has armed one of the newly established artillery brigades with Koksan SPGs

Russia has armed one of its newly established artillery brigades with Koksan self-propelled guns (SPGs) received from North Korea.

Telegram channel @mag_vodogray published this information with reference to Russian statements.

They published the first footage of firing from North Korean 170mm SPGs and their ammunition.

The artillery system is at the disposal of one of the newly formed artillery brigades of the Leningrad Military District, which was launched/reestablished in 2024.

The published materials also captured standard 170 mm shells from North Korea for the first time. As noted in the @mag_vodogray, they have a design feature typical of Soviet-made ammunition—two driving bands on the body.

For example, 152mm ammunition for MSTA-type artillery systems:

This is probably primarily due to the technological capabilities of ammunition production in the DPRK in the 1970s and 1980s, when artillery systems of this caliber were developed.

As for the origin of the artillery system, it is considered to have been developed entirely in North Korea, and there are two main versions of the artillery unit that developed from it: the 17-cm German heavy gun Kanone 18 or the 15-cm (149.1 mm) Japanese Type 96 gun.

According to Western designations, there are two versions of this self-propelled gun – M1978 and M1989, named after the year of their first public demonstration in the media.

As noted by an anonymous Japanese researcher of the DPRK military on social media X under the nickname KPA_bot, the real name of the gun is “Juche,” after the name of the North Korean ideology.

It is unknown how many such systems are in service with this particular artillery brigade, or how many Koksan self-propelled guns Russia has received in total, but we are talking about dozens of units that have already been delivered.