North Korea chose not to parade its nuclear-capable missiles. What does that say?
As expected, North Korea staged a major military parade through Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square on Sunday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding on September 9,1948. The parade, unlike the parade earlier this year in February, was attended by both senior foreign dignitaries and received coverage by the international media.
The presence of foreign dignitaries at the summit was significant. It underlined that, contrary to the United State’s efforts to isolate North Korea last year, Pyongyang still had many friends. Two envoys that received particular focus in North Korea’s domestic coverage of the foundation day celebrations were Chinese President Xi Jinping special representative, Li Zhanshu, a member of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, and Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament.
Unlike the parade in February, however, Sunday’s parade was notable for the complete absence of any nuclear-capable missile systems. The heaviest pieces of military hardware on display, based on the limited imagery released by foreign media that were present, included the KN06/Pongae-5 surface-to-air missile system, self-propelled artillery guns, and multiple rocket launch systems. Like in February, North Korea chose not to broadcast the parade as it occurred on its state television network.
That North Korea chose to withhold its nuclear-capable systems, including the intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of striking the continental United States, is significant and speaks to the shift in the country’s strategic focus announced earlier this year by Kim Jong Un.
Speaking before the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee in April, Kim announced a ‘new strategic line’ for North Korea, that would see the country’s efforts directed almost entirely toward economic and scientific betterment. Kim announced the success of his older byungjin line, adopted in 2013, that privileged the parallel pursuit of nuclear weapons and economic betterment.
