Kim gives rare speech at military parade

THE voice of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un boomed across the ranks of troops before him, declaring his nation ready for “any kind of war” with the USA, as the country’s rulers marked 70 years in power with its largest-ever military parade.

Dressed in his customary dark Mao suit, Kim struck a more belligerent note than in previous public addresses, telling the assembled masses in Kim Il-Sung square that North Korea could fight any war begun by the US.

Adm. Harry Harris made the remarks in a briefing to reporters on Friday on the eve of North Korea’s military parade.

For the finale, a stage was set up on a river running through central Pyongyang for a late-night concert featuring North Korea’s most popular musical group, the all-female Moranbong Band. The highlight was what South Korean officials said appeared to be a new version of KN-08 long-range missiles.

“The Korean army is ready to aggressive wars waged by the U.S.” leader Kim Jong-Un proclaimed.

Kim also seized what amounted to a rare photo opportunity to underline his country’s traditional alliance with China, which has shows signs of strain since he took power following the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il, in 2011.

While the celebrations will likely be lauded by the country’s deferential state media, Western newspapers have highlighted the ruling party’s seven decades of repression, abductions, murder and nuclear brinkmanship.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Liu told Kim China was willing to work with North Korea for a quick resumption of six-party nuclear talks.

Liu Yunshan, the fifth most powerful man in China’s ruling Communist Party, stood by Mr Kim during the parade.

Analysts had speculated that the regime would conduct the launch in the days leading up to the anniversary, but that did not happen, leading a few to wonder whether Beijing had leaned on Pyongyang to behave itself while Liu was in town.

Contrary to North Korean myth, nothing special happened on 10 October 1945, and the founder of the Workers’ Party was not young Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-sung but an older apparatchik later executed as a spy.

Saturday’s military parade is expected to be one of North Korea’s biggest. The Korean War, which pitted the China-backed communist North against the U.S.-supported capitalist South, ended in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty.

Kim Jong-un, the grandson of the man who cemented the party’s rule, will preside over spectacular celebrations.

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. Kim smiled as he spoke with Liu through a translator. Keeping potentially powerful institutions carefully balanced against each other is a key to the stability of Kim’s dictatorial leadership.