(Bloomberg) — North Korea held a nighttime military parade in central Pyongyang, NK News reported, part of celebrations to mark the 90th anniversary of the foundation of its army.
NK News cited a South Korean military source it didn’t name as confirming that the parade began at 10 p.m. local time on Monday. It said earlier that 12 illuminated flying objects that could have been drones or helicopters had been spotted in the skies above the North Korean capital.
Kim Jong Un’s regime has previously used parades to show off its latest weaponry designed to deliver nuclear strikes of the U.S. and America’s allies in Asia. It has held recent parades at night and then edited footage of the event that aired on state television several hours later.
Observers told Yonhap news agency that the parade could provide an opportunity for North Korea to flaunt its new Hwasong-17 ICBM and other advanced weapons including a guided tactical nuclear warhead.
Satellite imagery of training indicated 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 an unnamed security source as saying.
The news agency said earlier that North Korea had scrapped plans for the Monday parade, perhaps due to bad weather.
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The event comes as North Korea appears ready to test its first nuclear device since 2017 and has in recent months rolled out 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 take a tough line on Pyongyang.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to visit South Korea and Japan in late May, according to local media reports. 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 his administration has been focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea’s biggest display of new weaponry under Kim came at an October 2020 parade that included what weapons experts said was likely the world’s largest road-worthy intercontinental ballistic missile.
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That missile, known as the Hwasong-17, seems 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.
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