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Hundreds of people are pictured in formation at a training facility in North Korea’s capital, possibly indicating that the country is preparing for a military parade amid rising tensions over its recent missile tests.
According to the 38 North website, which specialises in North Korean research, images captured on the Mirim airfield in Pyongyang on February 5 — where previous military parade rehearsals have taken place — certainly signals a planned parade.
North Korea frequently commemorates significant anniversaries with parades and other demonstrations, and the website mentioned many upcoming events, including Kim Jong Il’s 80th birthday next week and Kim Il Sung’s 110th birthday in April.
The three Kims, who have ruled North Korea since its founding in 1948, have a strong personality cult among the country’s 25 million inhabitants. The birthdays of the two late Kims are the country’s most important holidays, and the country’s powerful Politburo recently resolved to mark their approaching birth anniversaries “with magnificence” and as “great festivals of victory and glory that will shine long in the annals of the country.”
North Korea has not announced any festivities to commemorate the forthcoming birth anniversaries. However, on previous official anniversaries and birthdays, North Korea would regularly parade goose-stepping soldiers and new weapons systems across a central Pyongyang plaza to promote unity and threaten its adversaries.
North Korea conducted a series of missile tests last month in what some experts believe was an attempt to beef up its nuclear arsenals and put pressure on the Biden administration to make concessions like sanctions reduction. Although the tests appear to be on hold during the Winter Olympics in China, North Korea’s most significant ally and economic lifeline, analysts believe the country may test larger weapons after the Games.
The defence chiefs of the United States, South Korea, and Japan spoke on Thursday, emphasising that North Korea’s recent missile tests “are destabilising to regional security” and pledging to continue efforts to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to a release from the US Department of Defense. It stated that the United States’ commitment to Japan and South Korea’s defence is “ironclad.”
According to his ministry, South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook branded the North’s tests as “a direct and serious threat to us” and said Seoul will strengthen its own military power and military alliance with Washington.
It’s unclear whether the current parade preparations were in honour of Kim Jong Il’s or Kim Il Sung’s birthdays.
According to the 38 North website, in recent years, training at the Mirim airport began one to several months before the festivities. Last month, the South Korean military claimed to have discovered signals that North Korea was planning military demonstrations.
The website stated that significant numbers of trucks and other military vehicles were frequently positioned in the fields surrounding the rehearsal area prior to past parades. It stated that such vehicles were not visible in the current photograph, implying that the future event will be primarily populated by people or that automobiles have yet to arrive.
