Anniversary: ​​North Korea demonstrates strength with military parade

anniversary
North Korea demonstrates strength with military parade

On the 75th anniversary of his army’s founding, Kim Jong Un wanted above all to demonstrate military strength. photo

© Uncredited/KCNA/KNS/dpa

More ICBMs than ever before: At the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean armed forces, ruler Kim Jong Un demonstrated military strength.

Amid rising tensions with the US and South Korea, North Korea has once again demonstrated its strength – and possibly newly developed weapons systems – in a nightly military parade.

With reference to satellite images, experts assumed that North Korea presented more ICBMs than ever before at its troop shows and obviously also new types of missiles on the 75th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces on Wednesday. The ICBMs shown demonstrated a maximum of nuclear attack capability, the state media in North Korea reported on Thursday, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Pictures showed leader Kim Jong Un inspecting the parade on Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square, which was brightly lit with searchlights, from a balcony. He was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju and his teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae. The country, which is largely isolated internationally, is subject to tough international sanctions because of its nuclear weapons program.

ICBM most important means of delivery of nuclear weapons

Footage from the parade indicated 10 to 12 North Korean Hwasong-17 ICBMs, North Korea expert Ankit Panda wrote on Twitter. “Combined, that’s more ICBM launchers than have ever been seen at a North Korean parade.” ICBMs, which have a range of at least 5,500 kilometers, are considered the most important means of delivering nuclear weapons. North Korea’s development of strategic missiles is particularly aimed at the United States, which Pyongyang accuses of hostile policies. According to Panda and other experts, it appears on the first photos that a new ICBM system with solid fuel propulsion was probably presented as well. Solid fuel rockets are ready for use particularly quickly.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have escalated significantly since last year. According to a UN expert report, Pyongyang tested more than 70 nuclear-capable missiles in violation of Security Council resolutions. The US and South Korea have resumed full-scale joint military exercises.

dpa

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