SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea showcased new submarine-launched ballistic missiles under development and other military hardware in a parade that underscored leader Kim Jong Un’s challenging calls to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program .
State media said Kim took center stage in Thursday night’s parade in celebration of a major government party meeting in which he pledged maximum efforts to strengthen the nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian rivals and the American homeland to counter what he describes as American hostility.
During an eight-day Labor Party congress that ended Tuesday, Kim also revealed plans to save the country’s economy, hit by U.S. sanctions over its nuclear ambitions, pandemic-related border closures and natural disasters that wiped out crops.
The economic setbacks left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with President Donald Trump, which derailed differences of opinion over sanctions easing in exchange for North Korean deprivation steps, and pushed Kim to the most difficult moment of his nine years. long rule.
Kim’s comments are likely intended to pressure the incoming US government of Joe Biden, who previously called the North Korean leader a ‘thug’, and accuse Trump of pursuing a spectacle rather than a meaningful fight against the North’s core capability. Kim did not rule out talks, but said the fate of bilateral relations depends on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward North Korea.
North Korean state television on Friday aired edited footage of the parade showing thousands of civilians and troops roaring and fireworks exploded overhead as Kim walked out of a building and took his place at a podium in Kim Il Sung Square, named after his grandfather and the country’s founder.
Kim, wearing a black fur hat and leather trench coat, waves and smiles broadly as his troops chant: “Let’s defend Kim Jong Un with our lives!” and “Protect the workers’ party of the Central Committee of Korea with our lives under the leadership of great comrade Kim Jong Un!”
Reports and video from state media suggested that Kim did not give a speech during the parade.
His defense minister, Kim Jong Gwan, said in a speech that North Korea’s army would “have to install our largest force in advance to punish enemy forces thoroughly” if they threatened the North’s security.
Military planes fly in formation over the dark sky and use what appear to be torches to form the symbol of the Labor Party – a hammer, brush and sickle.
Flag-waving spectators, unmasked despite a fiery domestic campaign to ward off the coronavirus, cheered as troops rolled out of the country’s most advanced weapons, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles described by the official Korean Central News Agency as the ‘world’ ‘s most powerful ‘weapon. ”
The new type of submarine missiles were larger than those previously tested by North Korea.
The North has also displayed a range of solid fuel weapons designed to be fired from mobile launchers, potentially expanding its ability to hit targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases there.
KCNA said that the parade contains other missiles capable of destroying enemies in a preventative manner outside (our) territory. “But it was not immediately clear whether the description referred to intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Photos and videos released by state media apparently do not contain weapons that can definitely be identified as ICBMs.
During a previous military parade in October, North Korea proposed the largest ICBM yet. Its previous long-range missiles showed a potential ability to reach deep within the American continent during flight tests in 2017.
North Korea has been developing submarine-launched ballistic missile systems for years. Acquiring an operating system will alert its competitors and neighbors, as it is more difficult to pre-shoot missiles.
However, Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies and a former military official who has taken part in inter-Korean military talks, said the North’s presumably new submarine-launched missiles could be engineering models that further development required before they are ready to be tested and deployed.
While Kim Jong Un promised during the congress to develop nuclear submarines capable of firing nuclear weapons with ballistic missiles, it will take North Korea a long time to overcome financial and technological problems and to manufacture such systems. , the analyst said.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the way North Korea displayed the submarine missiles in the parade indicated that a related test was the first provocation for North Korea. Korea for the government of Biden may be.
The joint chiefs of staff of South Korea said in a statement that they were studying the weapons of North Korea but did not immediately issue a detailed assessment.
Japanese Chief of Staff Katsunobu Kato said Tokyo was watching North Korean missile developments with “great concern”.
Nuclear-powered submarines were just one of the many advanced military assets on Kim’s wish list during the congress, which also included longer-division ICBMs that could potentially steer the American continent more reliably, new tactical nuclear weapons and heads, espionage satellites and hypersonic weapons.
It is unclear whether North Korea can fully develop such systems. Although the country is believed to have accumulated at least dozens of nuclear weapons, estimates of the exact status of its nuclear and missile program vary widely.
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Associated Press author Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.