I previously wrote an article suggesting that the North Korean military does not have Mi-24 Hinds, but I will retract this statement.
The North Korean Hinds definitely exist. To be precise, they 'existed.'
North Korea imported around 80 Hinds from the Soviet authorities when it imported MiG-29s and others in the mid-1980s. It is presumed that these are the A-type that were retired when the Far East Primorsky Krai region converted to Mi-24Ds and others on a large scale. It seems that around 50 were imported in the first batch and 30 in the second batch. It is also quite possible that there were also D-types mixed in later batches.
At that time, Hind was quite active during the Soviet-Afghan War, so the North Korean army had quite high expectations for this Hind, and in fact, in the 80s, this North Korean Hind was often seen during mobile training, showing quite a presence. Therefore, in the weapon yearbooks such as Jane's Yearbook, Hind was considered a solid part of the North Korean army's power, and was also considered a real threat to our army.
The problem is that this Hind was inherited from a retired Soviet aircraft, so it had many defects, and crashes occurred frequently within a few years of introduction. Even if you try to get parts, the Hind itself was a military aircraft, so Russia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was not willing to sell it, and it was difficult to obtain it through a third country because it was an early model. Around the same time, the North Korean military introduced a large helicopter, the Mi-26, so there were quite a few civilian aircraft, so they could use that as an excuse to obtain parts, but even that was difficult for the Hind.