At Military Parade, North Korean Leader says He’s Ready For War

During the parade, wave after wave of goose-stepping troops marched through the capital, followed by columns of tanks and weapons, in what may prove to be one of the largest ceremonial displays of military strength in North Korea’s history.

The overriding theme of the parade was the glorification of the ruling Workers’ Party that has served at the whim of the three generations of the Kim family for the last seven decades.

The preparations for the Workers’ Party of Korea anniversary appear to have begun as early as May, when satellite images captured approximately 45 tents assembled at a former Pyongyang airbase, according to an analysis posted on website 38 North. Planes flew over the reviewing stand, forming a large number of “70”.

Kim walked down a red carpet and saluted his honour guard before delivering the speech packed with fiery rhetoric.

“Through the line of Songun (military-first) politics, our Korean People’s Army has become the strongest revolutionary force and our country has become an impenetrable fortress and a global military power”, he said, interrupted by applause several times.

China’s state news agency Xinhua reported North Korea plans to send a 400-member delegation, and the two countries are to launch a border trade zone on October. 15.

Young leader Kim was joined by senior Chinese Communist Party official Liu Yunshan and flanked by senior North Korean party and military officials.

The attempt to fix relations between North Korea and China are thought to be motivated by mutual need.

Seth Doane reports from Pyongyang North Korea. On Friday night, shortly after his arrival Liu presented a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping into Kim Jong-un’s hands, suggesting that, despite the optics of the past 16 or so months, China and North Korea may finally be ready to move toward a thaw of sorts.

North and South Korea technically remain at war because their conflict between 1950 and 1953 ended in a truce, but not a treaty.

Pyongyang has indicated it could launch another satellite.

After a hectic period during which the main news from Pyongyang concerned stories, true and contested, of the novel and grisly means Kim Jong-un was using to dispose of unwanted officials, this event was by contrast nearly sentimental: a military parade to bring a lump to the throats of Cold Warriors everywhere.

Nuclear weapons analysts say if North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program continues unabated, its nuclear arsenal could expand from 10 to 16 nuclear weapons, to between 20 and 100 in the next five years.

The US and North Korea have long had relations marked by mutual mistrust and aggression. The previous evening, Kim and Liu met at the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in Pyongyang and agreed to expand high-level talks between the two sides and to promote various kinds of cooperation and exchange.

“We suspect that North Korea may have reached a high level of miniaturization of nuclear weapons, but it still does not have capability to install them on a ballistic missile”, said Na.