North Korea staged a major military parade Saturday as a show of force against the United States and a display of devotion to the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un.
It was a day of spectacle: Jets soared overhead, flying in formation to form the number “105, ” the number of years since the birth of Kim Il Sung, who forged an isolated “workers state” on the northern Korean Peninsula.
Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of citizens — the men dressed in suits, the women in traditional Korean dresses — marched through central Pyongyang, clutching pink artificial flowers and national flags.
They clustered around floats adorned with political slogans. “Long live the socialist medical system, ” said one, which was surrounded by doctors. Another, depicting a new residential development in Pyongyang, read: “We are the happiest in the world.”
The marchers turned their heads upward to North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong Un, who surveyed the massive show of military might and public adulation from a high rostrum. Some wept.
The colorful show of pageantry and power Saturday offered a rare glimpse of one of the world’s most secretive societies. It also provided an opportunity for North Korea — striving to become the world’s next nuclear power — to stage a provocative display of the military hardware it continues to develop in defiance of international sanctions.
The government did not test a nuclear weapon to mark the anniversary, as many analysts had expected. A missile launch was attempted early Sunday, according to U. S. and South Korean officials, but it fizzled.
In a speech, Choe Ryong Hae, the vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea — widely believed to be the country’s second-most powerful man — warned that Pyongyang would not hesitate to deploy nuclear weapons against the U. S.
“Now the U. S. imperialists have struck a sovereign country, ” he said, referring to President Trump ’s recent airstrike on a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack. “Now, they are dispatching nuclear forces in the territory of the Korean peninsula. If the U. S. government preemptively strikes our country, we are ready to counter strongly.”
Trump diverted a naval strike group toward the peninsula last week, led by the USS Carl Vinson, a large aircraft supercarrier accompanied by destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser. It is not known to carry nuclear weapons.
The North Korea-U. S. showdown has placed northeast Asia in a state of heightened anxiety. Vice President Mike Pence arrives in Seoul this weekend to discuss North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and affirm support for U. S. allies. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed Friday that North Korea may be able to arm its missiles with sarin nerve agent, and the country’s national security council reportedly has discussed how to evacuate its nearly 60, 000 citizens from South Korea in the event of a North Korean attack.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that a military conflict between North Korea and the U. S. could break out “at any moment” and urged the two powers to avoid the “irreversible route” of war.
