North Korea celebrated the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-1953) with a military parade on Thursday night (27) in Pyongyang. Victory Day, as the regime calls this date, was an opportunity for the country to display intercontinental missiles, as well as new attack and spy drones. The event took place in front of delegations from Russia and China and shows that the North Korean regime is not isolated.
(RFI) North Korea celebrated the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-1953) with a military parade on Thursday night (27) in Pyongyang. Victory Day, as the regime calls this date, was an opportunity for the country to display intercontinental missiles, as well as new attack and spy drones. The event took place in front of delegations from Russia and China and shows that the North Korean regime is not isolated.
Kim Jong-un appeared to the crowd with a big smile on his face, alongside Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Communist Party official Li Hongzhong. They are the first foreign guests in the country since the Covid-19 epidemic.
North Korea has introduced intercontinental ballistic missiles that violate resolutions of the UN Security Council, which has Russia and China as permanent members.
Kang Sung-nam, North Korean defense minister, took the opportunity to denounce the strengthening of the US military presence in the region and make new threats.
“Recently we witnessed for the first time in forty years the appearance of a nuclear submarine of a superpower equipped with a nuclear bomb capable of destroying an entire country, in a port in the south of the peninsula. The US imperialists have no room to survive if they use nuclear weapons against North Korea,” he threatened.
“The question is not whether a nuclear war will occur on the Korean peninsula, but who will start it, when and how,” the minister added, according to local television.
Pyongyang has regularly condemned US military maneuvers in the region. Kang warned that the North will act if Americans attempt “a military confrontation as is currently the case”.
The North Korean regime presented its defense innovations to the Russian army chief: Haeil, an underwater drone allegedly capable of triggering a nuclear tsunami, and two new spy and combat drones.
“The public’s enthusiasm and joy were visible” when North Korea’s newest solid-fuel ICBM, the Hwasong-18, was unveiled, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The weapon was tested in April and July this year.