Icon: enlarge
Seoul train station: A man watches an archive report on South Korean TV about a recent military parade in North Korea
Photo: JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Apparently at dawn, North Korea had, according to the military in South Korea, brought up a large number of weapons for a military parade in Pyongyang.
This Saturday, North Korea celebrates the 75th anniversary of the country’s ruling Labor Party.
There are indications that a large military parade took place early in the morning (local time) in the capital's Kim-Il-Sung Square with a large number of weapons and people, said South Korea's General Staff.
The intelligence services in South Korea and the USA analyzed the event, "including the possibility that it may be the main event".
The statement thus left open whether North Korea only allowed a parade to rehearse.
There were no reports of an army show from North Korea itself.
The autocratically ruled country had not made any corresponding announcements either.
In South Korea, however, it was expected that the neighboring country would celebrate the party anniversary with a powerful parade.
In recent weeks, experts in the USA had published satellite images that indicated samples for the deployment of soldiers and the presentation of weapons in Pyongyang.
An occasion to demonstrate strength
It has also been speculated that North Korea could demonstrate a new ICBM.
The internationally isolated leadership in Pyongyang often uses important commemorative or public holidays as an opportunity to demonstrate strength.
At a party meeting at the end of 2019, ruler Kim Jong Un threatened that the world would experience a "new strategic weapon" in the near future.
Since Kim's failed summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam in February 2019, negotiations on North Korea's nuclear weapons program have stalled.
North Korea, which was already largely isolated, has further isolated itself after the outbreak of the corona virus - with drastic consequences for the economy and the people in the country.
An unusually wet and stormy summer exacerbated the problems.
Weeks of rain and floods threatened the harvest in July and August.
Even before the crisis, around 11 million North Koreans were malnourished.
At a meeting of the Workers' Party in mid-August, Kim had to admit that North Korea had failed to improve people's living conditions "because of unforeseen difficulties" and had failed to achieve its economic goals.
The state media quoted him as saying that a new five-year plan must be drafted in January 2021.
Icon: The mirror
wit / dpa / Reuters