North Korea has displayed new fruits of its weapons modernization program at the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, including nuclear-capable missiles and attack drones. Earlier, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, had met for the second time with the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, who in turn delivered a speech in which he conveyed the gratitude of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, for the “support unwavering” of North Korea in regards to the invasion of Ukraine.
Kim presided over the parade held Thursday with Shoigu on his right and Li Hongzhong, a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Politburo, on his left in the box set up in central Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square in front of the Grand Palace in Pyongyang. Town Studies. The three of them showed signs of getting along, talking and laughing in the box.
The regime exhibited its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the Hwasong-17 and the even more sophisticated Hwasong-18, which uses solid fuel and was tested for the second time on July 12 from near Pyongyang. The nuclear-capable weapons have the ability to hit targets anywhere in the United States.
He also showed off other of his newer assets, hitherto not included before in his increasingly regular military parades in the capital. Among these novelties was the Haeil underwater drone, tested last spring and which Pyongyang claims is capable of generating radioactive tsunamis just like the Russian Poseidon.
Also on view was one of the newly developed drones, whose design is reminiscent of the American Reaper, famous for its use to destroy targets in Afghanistan and Iraq. The attack drones were presented by state television this week and in the images it was seen how it was capable of firing missiles during its flight.
But all this weaponry had already been seen by Shoigu on Wednesday when Kim took it to an exhibition in the North Korean capital. The image that has resulted from Thursday’s parade, and in general the one left by the presence of the delegations led by Shoigu and Li, is one of camaraderie between Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing at a time marked by growing polarization within the framework of the war in Ukraine and also in Northeast Asia, where in turn Washington seeks to make friends with Seoul and Tokyo with increasing insistence.
It is also important to note that never before had Chinese or Russian delegations invited by Pyongyang to one of these military parades seen so much North Korean weaponry with potential nuclear capabilities parading.
This represents a sign, unprecedented until now, of the approval of Moscow and Beijing – which refuse at this point to sanction the North Korean regime for its weapons tests – for the development of weapons of mass destruction by Kim Jong Un.
A Kim who, with the presentation of these new drones, can now cross out yet another item from the list of new weapons to be developed that was included in the military modernization plan approved in 2021 and which has fewer and fewer pieces left to complete.
And so, as the West continues to accuse Pyongyang of secretly and illegally supplying military resources to Moscow, the North Korean leader chose to meet Shoigu a second time on Thursday to discuss the need for “further development of the strategic and tactical collaboration and cooperation between the two countries in the field of defense and security,” according to KCNA.
