Cheonma-2
main battle tank
The Cheonma-2 (Chonma-2, Ch'ŏnma-2, Korean:천마-2호, previously classified as M2020 or M2024 by foreign intelligence) is a North Korean 3rd generation main battle tank unveiled during the October 2020 military parade that commemorated the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers' Party.
Background
North Korea originally relied on Soviet and Chinese made tanks before they started developing their own tanks, starting with the Cheonma-ho tank.
Newer Cheonma-216 and Songun-Ho tanks would be developed and introduced in the early 21st century but were still heavily influenced by old Soviet/Russian and Chinese tank designs; namely by the T-62.
At the beginning of the 21st century, North Korea was able to obtain T-72 tanks through various channels and various parts of it, which would be used in the development of their tanks, such as with the Songun-Ho.
In 2016, a tank commander in North Hamgyong Province claimed a K1 88-Tank was at a tank research center in North Korea, but the Republic of Korea Armed Forces denied such a claim.
History
On October 10, 2020, the DPRK held a rare night time military parade to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea's foundation. During the parade, nine of the new tanks were unveiled, alongside new armored fighting vehicles, rocket artilleries, and ballistic missiles, such as the Hwasong-16 and Pukguksong-4 missiles. The tanks displayed were stated to be prototypes.
As of March 2024, 9 are known to exist in the updated M2024 standard, but mass production is believed to be planned at the Kusong tank plant.
On May 4, 2025, the Korean Central News Agency released photos of Kim-Jong Un inspecting and touring a factory making Cheonma-2 tanks.
The public source identifies “Cheonma-2” as main battle tank. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cheonma-2, main and battle.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cheonma-2” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.