Pyongyang to mark 70 years since Korean War armistice
Seoul, Jul 25 (EFE).- North Korea is preparing big celebrations Thursday to commemorate 70 years since the Korean War armistice, state media reported.
“The celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Great War of the Liberation of the Fatherland will be carried out in a grandiose way that will go down in history in the capital, Pyongyang,” read an article published Tuesday by North Korean state news agency KCNA.
The Great Homeland Liberation War is the name given to the Korean War – which ended on July 27, 1953 with the signing of a ceasefire – in the country.
North Korea celebrates the anniversary with a national holiday called “Victory Day,” as the regime’s narrative states that it was a North Korean victory because it forced the United States, South Korea and the other allied forces to call for an armistice.
Satellites have been capturing rehearsals for a large-scale military parade in Pyongyang for the anniversary for months.
The installation of pyrotechnics in recent days suggests that the great parade, in which the regime is expected to display ballistic missiles and other novelties from its arsenal at a time marked by its weapons modernization plan approved in 2021, will take place at night.
KCNA said the anniversary will serve as a “significant occasion to enhance the conviction and unwavering will of all the people, soldiers and new generations who will continue to carry the last 70 years of victorious glory into the next 700 and 7,000 years.”
The participants in the celebrations “arrived in Pyongyang on July 24,” KCNA reported without further details.
The regime has even invited a Chinese delegation led by Li Hongzhong, a member of the Communist Party of China politburo, marking the first time in more than three years that Pyongyang has invited a foreign delegation, which may signal a major shift in its border policy following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since the beginning of 2020, North Korea decided to implement a strict border policy that consisted of reinforcing the fence that borders China and Russia, multiplying the guard posts in these regions, and issuing orders to shoot anyone who approaches the divide.
Not even North Korean workers or diplomats abroad have been able to return to their country since early 2020 due to the paranoia of the regime (which in 2022 received batches of vaccines from China, although how many and what type is unknown) with Covid-19. EFE
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