DPRK marks Army Day with pre-Olympics military parade

World
Europe

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of its army on Thursday, one day ahead of the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

A military parade started before noon at the Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang.

DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un supervised the military parade which displayed the country's most powerful weapons, including its latest model of ballistic missile,the Hwasong 15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state television reported.

The Hwasong 15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) appears at DPRK's military parade, Feb. 8, 2018. /VCG Photo

Kim delivered a speech during the 90-minute parade, calling on DPRK's armed forces, known as the Korean People's Army (KPA), to safeguard peace on the Korean Peninsula while criticizing the US for "sabotaging" regional and world peace.

Commending the KPA for its fighting records over the past 70 years, Kim urged the soldiers to maintain the revolutionary tradition set by former DPRK leaders.

Kim watched and cheered KPA officers and soldiers from 50 units, including missile forces, army, air force, navy, special operation force, artillery force and armored forces.

The parade also recalled the history of the KPA, with 10 units holding flags of the early divisions established after the founding of the DPRK in 1948.

This is the second within 10 months after a grand parade was held in April last year and broadcast live to the world.

Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong' during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, April 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

What message is the DPRK sending with its Army Day parade?

The parade drew wide attention because it took place one day before the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the Republic of Korea (ROK).

But the DPRK said the timing was purely a coincidence and denied allegations of "provocation" by some of ROK's conservative media and politicians.

DPRK's ruling Workers' Party's Political Bureau designated Feb. 8 as its Army Day on Jan. 22, amid talks with the ROK on cooperation at the Winter Olympic Games.

The country will take "practical steps to significantly mark" the Feb. 8 anniversary, which was "a historic day," said the ruling party, reported the state-run KCNA news agency on January 23.

Commenting on DPRK's participation in the Games and its plan to stage the military parade, Wang Chong, a senior fellow from Chinese think tank the Charhar Institute, said Pyongyang is "sending mixed signals." The country wants to tell the world that it is a "peace-loving nation," he said but at the same time it does not want to "lose face" in front of its own people.

The DPRK has had two anniversaries for its army: April 25 and Febr. 8.

April 25 marked the founding of the anti-Japanese guerrilla force, the Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA) in 1932. On Feb. 8, 1948, the late founder Kim Il Sung transformed the KPRA into regular armed forces. The date became a larger celebration as Army Day until 1978, when the country canceled the Feb. 8 celebration, and only honored the founding of the KPRA.

Kim Jong Un revived the Feb. 8 celebration in 2015, marking it with wreath laying and a defense ministry meeting addressed by the head of the army's General Political Bureau.

Two opposing forces at the Olympics

US Vice President Mike Pence said the US "will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea (DPRK) ever," after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday. "We will continue to isolate North Korea (DPRK) until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile program once and for all.” Pence is set to arrive in Seoul for the Winter Olympics on Thursday.

US Vice President Mike Pence meets with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Abe's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, Feb 7, 2018. /Reuters Photo

DPRK's high-level delegation to the Games will be led by Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK. He will be the most senior Pyongyang official to enter the ROK since the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953. And DPRK leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, will join Kim Yong Nam at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday. The delegation is expected to travel by plane on Friday, landing at Incheon airport near Seoul.

Pence and Kim Yong Nam could both attend a leaders' reception scheduled to take place before the opening ceremony, but both sides have been coy about a possible meeting.

US Vice President Mike Pence speaks with a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force officer as he inspects PAC-3 missile interceptors with Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 7, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Pence said he hadn't requested a meeting with DPRK officials but added, "We'll see what happens." He said that his message will always be the same – that the DPRK "must once and for all abandon its nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile ambitions."

Pyongyang said on Thursday that its officials had no intention of meeting US representatives, but did not explicitly rule it out. "We have never begged for dialogue with the United States and it will be the same going forward," KCNA reported on Thursday, citing Cho Yong Sam, director-general of the North American department of DPRK's foreign ministry.

"To be clear, we have no intention of meeting with the US during our visit to South Korea," and no plans to use the Winter Olympics as a political vehicle, Cho added.

DPRK's national flag has been raised at the Olympic Village in Gangneung, South Korea. /VCG Photo

Pence had warned against allowing the DRPK to use the Olympics for propaganda before heading to the ROK. He also promised the US and its allies, including Japan, would keep maximum pressure on Pyongyang until it took steps toward "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization."

The DPRK has accused the US of trying to turn the Olympics Games into a theater of confrontation with Pyongyang.

In a letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, DPRK's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said "good results are borne in the inter-Korean dialogue," but Washington is "seeking to intentionally aggravate the situation by introducing the strategic assets including nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups into the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula at a time when north and south of Korea are charting a course of peace together."

808km