North Korea holds military parade on 73rd anniversary

North Korea held a major overnight military parade to mark the nation's 73rd anniversary on Thursday, with Kim Jong Un in attendance.  It was the reclusive nation's third such parade in a span of 12 months. 

Along with endless soldiers, the parade featured paramilitary and public security forces. Some personnel marched in orange hazmat suits. The display of weaponry was heavily toned down compared to the parades in January this year and October of last year, where North Korea displayed an array of its weaponry and defense systems, including ballistic missiles.

A South Korean military official told Yonhap news agency that they were analyzing the night's events "in close coordination with the United States."

Chinese President resident Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Kim on the anniversary.

More machines than missiles

This year, there were no missiles or heavy weapons to be seen. The procession had detachments from the railway ministry, Air Koryo and the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex, and fire brigades, with only small artillery pieces dragged by agricultural tractors. Cavalry and motorcycle sidecars were also on show.

"The columns of emergency epidemic prevention and the Ministry of Public Health were full of patriotic enthusiasm to display the advantages of the socialist system all over the world, while firmly protecting the security of the country and its people from the worldwide pandemic," the state-run KCNA news agency said in a written report.

North Korea claims not to have suffered a single case of COVID-19, though this has been met with considerable skepticism abroad.

The parade also featured members of the country's largest civilian defense force, the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, who number 5.7 million in total. Seoul's Unification Ministry said the last time North Korea held a parade with these guards was in 2013. 

Scope for peace talks

Kim arrived at the event in a pale gray suit, and "extended greetings" to the population as fireworks went off at midnight, said KCNA.

"There were no nuclear weapons and Kim didn't give a message while being there, which could be meant to keep the event low-key and leave room for maneuver for future talks with the United States and South Korea," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Reuters news agency. 

Soon after North Korea's formal 1948 foundation, the Korean War would follow, from 1950 to 1953. Pyongyang never formally made peace with Seoul or the US after the conflict, with the combatants only signing an armistice. In more recent years, North Korea's nuclear ambitions have become perhaps the main source of strain between Pyongyang, Seoul and the West. Talks between Washington and Pyongyang about controlling North Korea's ballistic missiles stalled in 2019. 

Pyongyang and Seoul briefly reopened an emergency telephone hotline system for communication in July this year, but Seoul said North Korea stopped answering after South Korea and the US held their annual military exercises in August. 

tg/msh (dpa, AFP, AP, Reuters)