SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea unveiled new ballistic missiles fired by developing submarines and other military equipment at a parade highlighting leader Kim Jong Un’s defiant calls to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program .
State media said Kim took the lead in Thursday night’s parade by holding a major ruling party meeting in which he promised maximum efforts to bolster the nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian rivals and the northern homeland. -American to counter what he called the hostility of the United States.
During an eight-day Labor Party convention that ended Tuesday, Kim also unveiled plans to save the country’s economy, hit by U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear ambitions, pandemic-related border closures and disasters. natural that ended crops.
Economic setbacks have left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with President Donald Trump, who derailed disagreements over easing sanctions in exchange for North Korea’s denuclearization measures and pushed Kim to it is clearly the hardest time of his nine-year rule. .
Kim’s comments are likely intended to pressure the new US government of Joe Biden, who has previously called the North Korean leader a “thug” and accused Trump of pursuing the show instead of significant brakes on the North’s nuclear capabilities. . Kim has not ruled out talks, but said the fate of bilateral relations depends on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward North Korea.
On Friday, North Korean state television aired edited footage of the parade showing thousands of civilians and troops roaring and fireworks exploding as Kim stepped out of a building and took her place on a podium in Kim Il Square. Sung, named after his grandfather and the country’s founder.
Kim, wearing a black fur hat and a leather raincoat, made a gesture with a big smile as her troops sang “Let’s Defend Kim Jong Un with Our Lives.” and “Protect with our lives the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party, led by Comrade Kim Jong Un!”
State media reports and videos suggested Kim did not make a speech during the parade.
His defense minister, Kim Jong Gwan, said in a speech that the North Korean army “would preventively order our utmost power to thoroughly punish hostile forces” if they threaten the security of the North.
Military planes flew in formation through the dark sky, using what looked like flares to form the symbol of the Workers’ Party: a hammer, a brush and a sickle.
Spectators flying the flag, unmasked despite a fervent national campaign to defend themselves against the coronavirus, cheered as troops fired some of the country’s most advanced weapons, including ballistic missiles fired by submarines described by the Central Agency. Korea news as the “most powerful in the world.” weapon “.
The new type of missiles launched by submarines was larger than those previously tested by North Korea.
The North also featured a variety of solid-fuel weapons designed to be launched from mobile ground launchers, which potentially expand its ability to attack targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases.
KCNA said the parade featured other missiles capable of thoroughly annihilating enemies in a preventative manner outside our territory. But it was not immediately known whether the description referred to intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The photos and videos posted by the state media did not appear to include weapons that could be definitively identified as ICBM.
During a military parade earlier in October, North Korea unveiled what appeared to be its largest ICBM. Its previous long-range missiles demonstrated a potential ability to reach deep into the U.S. mainland during flight tests in 2017.
North Korea has been developing ballistic missile systems launched by submarines for years. Acquiring an operating system would alarm its rivals and neighbors because missiles launched from underwater are more difficult to detect in advance.
However, Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at the Seoul Institute for Far Eastern Studies and a former military official who participated in inter-Korean military talks, said the alleged new missiles fired by northern submarines could be mock-ups. of engineering that needed further development before they are ready to be tested and deployed.
While Kim Jong Un promised during the congress to develop nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons, it would take “a long time” for North Korea to overcome financial and technological difficulties and produce such systems, he said. analyst.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the way North Korea presented submarine-launched missiles at the parade suggests that a test related to them could be North Korea’s first provocation for the Biden administration.
South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that it is studying the weapons exhibited by North Korea, but did not immediately publish a detailed assessment.
Japanese Cabinet Chief Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Tokyo is monitoring North Korea’s missile developments with “great concern.”
Nuclear-powered submarines were just one of many advanced military assets on Kim’s wish list during the congress, which also included longer-range ICBMs that could more safely head to the continental United States, new nuclear and warhead tactical weapons, spy satellites and hypersonic weapons.
It is unclear whether North Korea is fully capable of developing such systems. Although the country is believed to have accumulated at least dozens of nuclear weapons, external estimates of the exact status of its nuclear and missile program vary widely.
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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.