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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a massive military parade featuring the country’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile, attended by visiting international dignitaries, state media KCNA reported on Saturday.
The parade, which began late on Friday, commemorated the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party and followed nationwide festivities held the previous day.
Among the foreign guests seated beside Kim were Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev, and Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam, while other officials and envoys observed the display.
During the parade, nuclear-armed North Korea showcased its most advanced Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, described by KCNA as the country’s “strongest nuclear strategic weapon system.”
The Hwasong missile series has given Pyongyang the ability to strike anywhere in the United States, though experts remain uncertain about the precision of its guidance system and the capacity of its warheads to survive re-entry into the atmosphere.
“The Hwasong-20 represents, for the moment, the apotheosis of North Korea’s ambitions for long-range nuclear delivery capabilities. We should expect to see the system tested before the end of this year,” said Ankit Panda of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The system is likely designed for the delivery of multiple warheads… Multiple warheads will increase stresses on existing U.S. missile defence systems and augment what Kim sees as necessary to achieve meaningful deterrence effects against Washington.”
Also featured in the display were hypersonic ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, a newly developed multiple rocket launcher, and a launcher for suicide drones, according to Hong Min, a North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
In his address at the event, Kim expressed “warm encouragement” to North Korean troops serving abroad, adding that the military’s heroism would not only be evident in defending the homeland but also in “outposts of socialist construction,” KCNA reported.
“Our army should continue to grow into an invincible entity that destroys all threats,” Kim said.
Earlier on Friday, Kim held talks with Medvedev, who remarked that the sacrifices of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine demonstrated the “trust in relations between the two countries.”
According to KCNA, Kim told Medvedev he wished to further deepen cooperation with Russia and strengthen exchanges across different sectors to achieve common goals.
The agency added that Vietnam and North Korea had also signed cooperation agreements in several areas, including defence, foreign affairs, and health, though it provided no further details.
