The government of North Korea staged a citywide party in Pyongyang on Wednesday night to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the nation’s military – featuring apparent intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) believed to be able to reach the United States.
Military technology experts believe the “strategic missile units” displayed at the parade were models of the Hwasong-17, the newest ICBMs that the communist regime has claimed to develop. North Korea claimed to have first tested the weapon in March 2022; dictator Kim Jong-un formally debuted the missile with a Top Gun-inspired photo shoot that month.
An ICBM launch by North Korea is “imminent,” South Korean security officials said in March 2022, as U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to visit Seoul this week. (KCNA/UPI)
The Hwasong-17 returned to public conversation with an event in November in which Kim’s daughter – whose name the government has never confirmed, but basketball star and diplomacy hobbyist Dennis Rodman has referred to as Ju-ae – made her public debut. The girl, believed to be about 12, has been nearly inseparable from her father in public appearances since.
Kim Ju-ae appeared next to Kim Jong-un and her presumed mother, Kim’s wife Ri Sol-ju, at Wednesday’s parade. The South Korean news agency Yonhap described the girl as Kim’s believed second child; experts believe Kim Jong-un also has a son, whose name is unknown and has not appeared in public. The media campaign to familiarize the public with the girl suggests that the regime is grooming her to succeed Kim Jong-un and begin a fourth generation of Kim dynasty rule, but Yonhap observed that the communist North Korean regime is highly paternalistic and was previously unlikely to hand the reins over to a woman.
Kim Jong-un has elevated his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, over many accomplished men in his regime, however – and many believe he was behind the chemical weapons homicide of his brother, Kim Jong-nam, in 2017.
The country’s state newspaper – the only legal media in the country aside from government magazines and regime television networks – did not name the missiles presented in Wednesday’s parade as the Hwasong-17 model, but repeatedly described it as “strategic,” a word reserved for nuclear-capable weaponry.
“The square was full of the high spirit of the fighters of the strategic missile units prepared for fulfilling their strategic mission anytime, true to the order of the leader only,” Rodong Sinmun, the state newspaper, detailed. “The giant entities of the DPRK [North Korea] strategic forces passed the square, demonstrating their dignity.”
“The demonstration of strength of justice started with cutting-edge military hardware of Juche Korea which rapidly emerged as the matchless superpower under the extraordinary military strategic idea and wise guidance of the great Comrade Kim Jong Un, the invincible and iron-willed commander,” the publication proclaimed.
Citing experts, the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo suggested that the number of presumed ICBMs on display at the parade, if shot at the United States simultaneously, could overwhelm American air defenses. It counted “at least 11” missiles displayed at the parade.
“The United States currently has 44 ground-based interceptors, but current military logic assumes 4 interceptors are required for each missile re-entry vehicle,” the newspaper noted.
Yonhap’s assessment appeared to agree that, if functional and not dummy models, the Hwasong-17s “could pose a significant threat to the U.S. mainland” as they are believed to take “less preparation time to launch” by virtue of being solid-fueled.
Elsewhere at the parade, Rodong Sinmun described a crowded, loud scene of citizens cheering and chanting communist slogans in support of Kim and the country’s military.
“The conviction in the rosy future of the Juche power shining with the great sun and the boundless emotion erupted like lava,” according to Rodong Sinmun. Regime photos of the event did not show participants wearing sanitary masks or anyone adhering to social distancing guidelines, a sign that Pyongyang had eased Chinese coronavirus restrictions reportedly imposed a month ago. At the time, reports citing anonymous citizens in the city indicated that Kim had forced residents under lockdown house arrest but had not canceled practice from this week’s parade, suggesting a short-term lockdown operation.
In addition to a parade of missiles believed to be Hwasong-17s, Pyongyang residents received performances of communist propaganda songs, a fighter pilot air show, fireworks, and columns of marching soldiers performing in sync.
“Encouraging the militant zeal for the parade, reliable paratroopers set off beautiful fireworks in the night sky and dropped with the flying flags of the DPRK and the WPK [Workers’ Party of Korea, the ruling communist party],” Rodong Sinmun described. “Then followed a ceremony of a combined military band resounding throughout the square with the melodies of revolutionary army songs.”
Rodong Sinmun did not report that Kim gave a speech at the parade, but had previously reported that he did deliver remarks at a banquet observing the military anniversary on Tuesday. He used that occasion to assert full control over and respect from the military, applauding the armed forces for submitting fully to the WPK, which Kim leads uncontestedly.
“In the initial period after its founding, our army clarified its original mission of sharing the same destiny with the Party and started a long bloody journey to remain faithful to it,” Kim told the assembled military leaders. “This has become a fundamental factor in making our history of army building be one that can never be separated from the history of struggle of the Party, the revolution, the country and the people.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.