[2] The Type 73 is based on a 1960s-era Soviet design, most likely the PK machine gun (PKM), although the date of its first production in North Korea is currently unknown.

The weapon was reportedly seen in the Korean Demilitarized Zone in 2002, when a United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission team told media outlets that North Korean soldiers had set up numerous Type 73s in positions 100 to 400 meters north of the demarcation line.

[4] North Korean officials were apparently not satisfied with the weapon, and by 1982 they had developed the Type 82 machine gun, which was more directly copied from the PKM's design.

[7] Since mid-2015, North Korean or Iranian-built copies of belt-fed Type 73s have been seen in use by Iranian-supported militias like the Popular Mobilization Forces, as well as other factions including the Christian Babylon Brigades that acquired the weapons through their alliance against ISIS.

A larger cartridge is a characteristic of a general-purpose machine gun, although such weapons typically are belt fed and do not use a box magazine.