Seoul, South Korea: South Korea’s military says it believes North Korea staged an overnight military parade in its capital, Pyongyang.
The North’s display of military might will likely be a measured effort to pressure the Biden administration on a freeze in nuclear diplomacy, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un failed to leverage his arsenal for economic gains during the Trump years.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday it was closely monitoring North Korea after detecting signs of a military parade, which was probably the main event, not a rehearsal.
It was not immediately clear what type of weapons were on display or whether Kim had attended the event, which would have been staged to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the country’s founding.
There were no immediate reports of a military parade in North Korean state media on Thursday morning. North did not provide live TV coverage during the previous night’s parade in January and October last year and a tape broadcast aired hours later.
North Korea often celebrates major state anniversaries by rolling out thousands of swan-stepping troops and its most advanced military hardware to Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square, named after Kim’s state-founding grandfather.
In January, North Korea demonstrated new missiles being developed to fire from submarines as it celebrated the conclusion of the Congress of the Workers’ Party, where Kim vowed to expand its nuclear weapons program, which he called the US. described as hostility.
During last October’s parade, the North unveiled its largest ever intercontinental ballistic missile, marking the ruling party’s 75th anniversary. The Northeast ICBM demonstrated its capability to reach the US mainland during flight tests in 2017.
Washington and Pyongyang are yet to recover from the fallout of a summit between Kim and former President Donald Trump in 2019, when Americans rejected the North’s demand for a major easing of economic sanctions in exchange for a partial reduction in its nuclear capabilities. Had done it.
Kim has since pledged to strengthen his country’s nuclear deterrent and has so far rejected the Biden administration’s proposals for talks, demanding that Washington first abandon its hostile policies.
But experts say Kim is now facing perhaps his toughest moment as he approaches a decade of rule, with North Korea indefinitely imposing border lockdowns to keep the coronavirus out and There is no prospect of an end to international sanctions.
The atmosphere for diplomacy worsened last month when Kim’s powerful sister issued a statement calling on the United States and South Korea to continue their joint military exercises, which she said were the most vivid expression of US hostile policy.
She said the North would act swiftly to bolster its pre-emptive strike capabilities, while another senior North Korean official issued a separate statement threatening an unspecified retaliation should the allies face a security crisis. .
Allies say the exercises are defensive in nature, but they have canceled or reduced them in recent years to make room for diplomacy or in response to COVID-19.
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