N. Korea parade for party anniversary delayed

It’s not known if Kim himself will speak at any of the day’s events.

Rumors surrounding Kim’s health have long swirled, and his rapid weight gain has been widely reported.

North Korea has also said its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon have resumed operations, raising fears of a possible fourth nuclear test explosion by the country.

“I don’t have high expectations that North Korea is going to do what China wants, but we should be happy that somebody is talking to North Korea”, he said.

On Wednesday, a high-level US military official said Washington believed North Korea had the capability to launch a nuclear weapon against the USA mainland and stood ready to defend against any such attacks.

Coming after last month’s parade in Beijing, which was attended by South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Mr. Liu’s prominence at Saturday’s event showed that China was not playing favorites between the Koreas and wanted to be seen as the diplomatic power in Asia, Mr. Cathcart said.

To punctuate his rhetoric, thousands of goose-stepping troops, tanks, armoured vehicles, rocket launchers and a variety of missiles mounted on trucks then rolled through the square.

An exhaustively researched report published this week by the US-based Institute for Science and global Security estimated that North Korea had between 10 and 16 nuclear bombs as of the end of 2014.

“North Korea appears to have decided not to showcase new weaponry such as the submarine-launched ballistic missile out of concern for its relationships with China and other countries”, a government source said.

North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un will preside over the ceremony, but no world leaders will be attending.

Kim held control of the party, and membership became highly coveted as it meant better job prospects, status and quality of life for elite North Koreans.

While North Korea might test-fire more short and mid-range rockets and missiles, violation of United Nations strictures against nuclear and long-range missile tests are another matter.

The spectacle promises to be the most elaborate since Kim Jong Un assumed power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Illinois, in late 2011, and the satellite imagery suggests the military parade could be the country’s biggest ever.

The parade also gave military intelligence officials the opportunity to examine the North Korean KN-08 inter-continental missile that has a maximum range of 12,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching the western coast of the U.S.

There is debate among experts as to how far it has come in developing those weapons, especially the ability to shrink nuclear warheads so that they can fit on a missile. In the future, China will still need space for strategic maneuvering, and North Korea, as its most reliable regional partner, offers a buffer for potential regional risks that may develop, Duowei added.

(Kim:) Kim Jong Un has been putting forth a policy developing the military, Kim Hae Un said, “and today on this street we saw with our own eyes and we have felt with our own flesh the might of our military power”.