Politics

Pyongyang media highlights Kim’s call to maintain show of strength

Seoul, Oct 11 (efe-epa).- The North Korean media broadcast Sunday the parade held a day earlier to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the single party, with special emphasis on the speech delivered by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and his call to maintain “eternal security” and “strong military might.”

The North Korean state agency KCNA published several articles and photos of the celebrations that took place during the early hours of Friday to Saturday in Pyongyang, an unusual time for this type of commemoration of the regime, and which were broadcast later by North Korean television.

During the events, the North Korean dictator gave a speech in which he expressed “his heartfelt thanks and congratulations” to all the North Korean people and the armed forces for “having achieved great victories by overcoming tests of unprecedented toughness and with unity of mind.” according to the agency of the regime.

Kim also expressed his intention to “preserve the eternal security” of the country with a view to “moving towards a new development and prosperity,” according to the excerpts highlighted by KCNA, which also published the full speech delivered by the leader.

He also assured he will never use said force “to attack” in a preemptive manner, and did not directly mention the US in all his speech, focused on the pandemic and the other challenges that the country has faced this year.

Despite the seemingly conciliatory tone used by Kim in his speech, Pyongyang exhibited new weapons of various kinds in the subsequent parade, starting with a new ICBM (Intercontinental Range Ballistic Missile.)

This new ICBM has a larger wingspan than the Hwasong-15, the longest-range projectile tested by the regime to date, and according to experts it is the largest liquid-fueled missile in the world.

The KCNA did not give details of the new weapons on display, although it mentioned one of the columns that marched was the First Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Company, which has to its credit “the achievement of having launched the dignity and power of Korea into space. Nov. 29, 2017, causing terror in its enemies.”

That was the date of the last ICBM test carried out by Pyongyang, when it tested the Hwasong-15, and since then the regime has chosen to seek a rapprochement with the United States, although the process to agree on a peace process and Denuclearization has been stalled since the Hanoi summit in February 2019.

Other novelties exhibited in the parade include large mobile erector launchers (TEL) carrying the aforementioned new missile, and another new intermediate-range, solid-fuel projectile (which speeds up its deployment and makes it difficult to detect in contrast to a liquid fuel projectile.)

The North Korean media limited themselves to highlighting that the weapons displayed were “ultra-modern” and that they symbolized “nuclear deterrence for self-defense” of North Korea, as well as “a guarantee for the future of the country.” EFE-EPA

asb-ahg/lds

Related Articles

Back to top button