SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea has developed camouflage materials such as stealth paint to hide warships, tanks or fighter jets from foreign reconnaissance satellites and aircraft, reports said Monday.

A confidential field manual used by the communist North’s military showed the isolated regime has also built a network of foxholes and caves, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.

The newspaper said the manual quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il as saying: ‘’Modern warfare is stealth warfare. We can say that victory or defeat will be determined by how we carry out stealth warfare.’’

The handbook, printed in 2005, was smuggled out of the North by a source through Caleb Mission, a South Korean Christian organization. It gives detailed instructions on how to make and apply the stealth paint, which absorbs radar waves, Chosun Ilbo said.

The manual describes how to conceal facilities or equipment and how to make military units look as though they are moving when they are not to deceive South Korean and US reconnaissance.