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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea showcased new ballistic missiles launched by under-development submarines and other military equipment in a parade that highlighted the provocative pleas of Chief Kim Jong One to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program.
State media said Kim took center stage in Thursday night’s parade celebrating an important ruling party meeting in which he pledged maximum efforts to bolster the looming nuclear and missile program. the Asian rivals and the American homeland to counter what he described as American hostility.
At an eight-day Workers’ Party convention that ended on Tuesday, Kim also revealed his intention to save the country’s economy, hit by US sanctions for its nuclear ambitions, border closures linked to the pandemic and natural disasters that have destroyed crops.
The economic setbacks have left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with President Donald Trump, which has derailed over disagreements over sanctions relief in exchange for North Korean denuclearization steps, and has pushed Kim to do so. which is clearly the most difficult moment of his nine-year reign. .
Kim’s comments are likely aimed at putting pressure on the new US government of Joe Biden, who previously called the North Korean leader a “thug” and accused Trump of hunting the show rather than significantly restricting the North’s nuclear capabilities. Kim did not rule out the talks, but said the fate of bilateral ties depends on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy towards North Korea.
North Korean state television broadcast edited footage of the parade on Friday that showed thousands of civilians and soldiers roaring and fireworks exploding above as Kim exited a building and took his place on a podium in Kim Il Sung Square, named after his grandfather and the country’s founder.
Kim, dressed in a black fur hat and leather trench coat, waved and smiled widely as his troops chanted “Let’s defend Kim Jong Un with our lives!” and “Protect with our lives the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea led by great comrade Kim Jong Un!”
State media reports and videos suggest Kim did not deliver a speech during the parade.
Its defense minister, Kim Jong Gwan, said in a speech that the North Korean military “will preemptively mobilize our greatest power to fully punish hostile forces” if they threaten the security of the North.
Military planes flew in formation across the dark sky, using what appeared to be flares to form the symbol of the Workers’ Party – a hammer, a brush and a sickle.
Spectators waving the flag, unmasked despite a fervent national campaign to fend off the coronavirus, cheered as troops deployed some of the country’s most advanced weapons, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles described by the Central Agency for Korean official press as the “most powerful in the world.” armed.”
The new type of submarine-launched missiles were larger than those North Korea had previously tested.
The North also showcased a variety of solid fuel weapons designed to be fired from mobile land launchers, potentially expanding its ability to strike targets in South Korea and Japan, including US military bases there. low.
KCNA said the parade featured other missiles capable of “completely annihilating enemies preemptively outside (our) territory.” But it was not immediately clear whether the description referred to intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Photos and videos published by state media did not appear to include weapons that could be definitively identified as ICBMs.
In a previous military parade in October, North Korea unveiled what appeared to be its largest ICBM to date. Its previous long-range missiles demonstrated a potential ability to reach the Americas during flight tests in 2017.
North Korea has been developing submarine-launched ballistic missile systems for years. Acquiring a functioning system would alarm rivals and neighbors because missiles fired underwater are more difficult to detect in advance.
Still, Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at the Seoul Institute for Far Eastern Studies and a former military official who participated in inter-Korean military talks, said the new missiles launched by submarines from the North could likely be engineering mockups that require further development before being are ready to be tested and deployed.
While Kim Jong Un promised during the congress to develop nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing nuclear ballistic missiles, it would take “a long time” for North Korea to overcome financial and technological difficulties and produce such systems, the analyst said.
Leif-Eric Easley, professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said North Korea’s way of presenting submarine-launched missiles in the parade suggests that a test linked to them could be the first provocation of North Korea for the Biden administration.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that they were studying the weapons exhibited by North Korea, but did not immediately release a detailed assessment.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said Tokyo was monitoring North Korean missile developments with “great concern.”
Nuclear-powered submarines were just one of many military assets put forward on Kim’s wishlist during Congress, which also included longer-range ICBMs that could potentially target the Americas more reliably. , new tactical nuclear weapons and warheads, spy satellites and hypersonic weapons.
It is not known whether North Korea is fully capable of developing such systems. While the country is said to have accumulated at least dozens of nuclear weapons, external estimates of the exact state of its nuclear and missile program vary widely.
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Associated Press editor Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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