N. Korea’s most advanced missiles kept out of parade
PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA
North Korea rolled out — some of its latest tanks and marched its best-trained goose-stepping units in a major military parade on Sunday to mark its 70th anniversary, but held back its most advanced missiles and devoted nearly half of the event to civilian efforts to build the domestic economy.
The strong emphasis on the economy underscores leader Kim Jong Un’s new strategy of putting economic development front and center.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans waving brightly colored plastic bouquets filled Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square as the parade began. Residents of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, trained for months for the anniversary and held up the bouquets to spell out words and slogans that can be seen from the VIP viewing area.
Kim attended the morning parade but did not address the assembled crowd, which included the head of the Chinese parliament and highlevel delegations from countries that have friendly ties with the North.
At the end of the two-hour event he strolled to the edge of the balcony with the Chinese special envoy, Li Zhan- shu, the third-ranking mem- ber in China’s ruling Communist Party. The two held up their joined hands to symbolize the countries’ traditionally close ties, though the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping could indicate Beijing still has some reservations about Kim’s initiatives.
Senior st atesman Kim Yong Nam, the head of North Korea’s parliament, set the relatively softer tone for the event with an opening speech that emphasized the eco- nomic goals of the regime, not its nuclear might. He called on the military to be ready to work to help build the economy.
r a truncated parade featuring tanks and some of North Korea’s biggest artil- lery, fewer than the usual number of missiles and lots of goose-stepping units from all branches of the military, the focus switched to civilian groups ranging from nurses to students to construction workers, many with colorful floats beside them.
The combining of military and civilian sections is a famil- iar North Korean parade format.
The past two big anniversa- ries of North Korea’s found- ing, in 2008 and 2013, did not feature the Korean People’s Army, only the civil defense units, which are officially called “Worker Peasant Red Guards.”
With tensions between the United States and North Korea once again on the rise, a parade featuring the very missiles that so unnerved President Donald Trump last year, and led to a volley of insults from both leaders, could have been seen as a deliberate provocation. The North also refrained from immediately televising the event, though North Korean media were out in force to film it, deploying booms and — for possibly the first time — drones with cameras.