North Korea is believed to have acquired some of these scrapped T-72s and obtained core technology for use on the P'okp'ung-ho through reverse engineering.

North Korea decided to significantly modernize its tank fleet to bridge the performance gap between its Ch'onma-ho MBTs and the South Korean K1 MBTs, which has similar performance to the early models of the American M1 Abrams.

However, economic struggles and a lack of several core technologies seem to have prevented North Korea from achieving high production numbers for the P'okp'ung-ho before the late 2000s.

[12] The first P'okp'ung-ho is believed to have been produced in 1992 in the Ryu Kyong-su Tank Factory, located in Sinhung, South Hamgyong province[9] under the Second Economic Committee and Second Academy of Defense Science.

[citation needed] Unclassified images of the P'okp'ung-ho finally surfaced in 2010, which showed the tank design appeared to be developed from the later models of the Ch'onma-ho and influenced by the T-72.

[14] Capabilities of the tank have been speculated to be nearly identical to T-90,[9] however the limited access to technical information regarding the P'okp'ung-ho makes accurate comparisons difficult.

[16] Although the engine compartment and the layout show some resemblance to a T-72 hull, the chassis is basically a longer heavily modified version of T-62.