(Bloomberg) — North Korea has yet to hold a military parade after showing signs of preparing for one to mark the Monday anniversary of the founding of its army, Yonhap News Agency said, delaying an event where it could showcase weapons to threaten the U.S. and its allies.
Satellite imagery indicated that thousands of soldiers and major weapons systems were poised to parade through central Pyongyang on Sunday night but the event did not take place, perhaps due to poor weather, Yonhap reported an unnamed informed source as saying. North Korea’s official media made no mention of a parade on Monday morning.
That opens up the possibility for the parade to be held Monday night to culminate celebrations for the 90th anniversary of the North Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. Kim Jong Un’s regime has held recent military parades at night and then edited footage to air several hours later on state television — with experts closely examining what it displayed to inspect the latest developments in the state’s arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons.
The parade in Kim Il Sung Square may involve about 20,000 troops and more than 250 pieces of military equipment, including hypersonic missile systems and rockets designed to deliver nuclear warheads to the U.S., Yonhap reported.
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The event comes as North Korea appears ready to test its first nuclear device since 2017 and in recent months has fired off new weapons designed to evade U.S.-operated missile shields. Tensions are also set to increase when South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol takes office on May 10 with pledges to pursue a tough line on Pyongyang.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to visit South Korea and Japan in late May, local media reports said. Any display of the weapons in Kim’s nuclear arsenal would serve as a reminder of the pressing security problems posed by Pyongyang that have simmered as the U.S. has been focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea’s last military parade was in September 2021, when no new weapons systems were on display. It’s biggest display of new weaponry under Kim came at an October 2020 parade that included what weapons experts said was the likely the world’s largest road-worthy intercontinental ballistic missile.
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That missile, known as the Hwasong-17, appears to be designed to carry a multiple nuclear warhead payload to the U.S. and appears to have failed shortly after takeoff in test in March, weapons experts said. About eight days after the failed test, North Korea successfully launched what South said was a different missile in Pyongyang’s first ICBM test in more than four years.
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