US president thanks North Korea as flowers replace missiles in parade
WITH no long-range missiles on display, North Korea staged a military parade yesterday focused on conventional arms, peace and economic development as it marked the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding.
The reduced display compared to past years earned a thank you note from US President Donald Trump, who hailed it as a “big and very positive statement from North Korea”.
Mr Trump on Twitter quoted a Fox News description of the event without long-range nuclear missiles as a sign of North Korea’s “commitment to denuclearise”.
“Thank you To Chairman Kim. We will both prove everyone wrong! There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other. Much better than before I took office,” Mr Trump tweeted.
In Pyongyang, line upon line of goose-stepping soldiers and columns of tanks shook the ground before giving way to chanting crowds waving flags and flowers as they passed a stand where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sat with a special envoy from China and other visiting foreigners.
Mr Kim told the envoy that North Korea was focusing on economic development and hopes to learn from China’s experience in this regard, Chinese state television reported.
“North Korea upholds the consensus of the Singapore meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States and has taken steps for it and hopes the United States takes corresponding steps, to jointly promote the political resolution process for the peninsula issue,” the report paraphrased Mr Kim as saying.
Unlike in previous years, there were no inter-continental missiles on display and there were no nuclear tests. The parade came amid stalled diplomatic talks with the US over the issue of denuclearisation.