N. KOREA HOLDS MILITARY PARADE

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North Korea marked the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army with a massive military parade on Monday. As expected, the event featured a lot of people and equipment, and was attended by Kim Jong-un. In his address he emphasized military capabilities, especially nuclear ones.

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North Korea has been confirmed to have held the parade on Monday night marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army. The celebration began at 9 p.m. at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. The parade took place about an hour later. The Korean Central News Agency disclosed Kim Jong-un's address on Tuesday morning. He called for the modernization of military technologies in order to boost the People's Army's combat capacity. Kim also vowed to continue strengthening the North's nuclear capabilities as quickly as possible. He stressed that nuclear capabilities must be prepared thoroughly so that they can act as a deterrent at any time. The North has so far pre-recorded military parades and disclosed them the following day. It's likely state media will show images of the parade on Tuesday. It's the 12th military parade to be held since Kim Jong-un took power. It comes seven months after the previous one, which marked the founding of Kim's regime. Four of the military parades were held at night. This partially avoids reconnaissance satellites and lights can be used for a more dramatic effect. The day of the KPRA's founding is when Kim Il-sung allegedly first organized a partisan group to fight against Japanese oppressors in Manchuria. Monday's parade was the first to mark the army's founding since Kim Jong-un seized power in 2012. All eyes are on whether the event featured any new weapons. At the Workers' Party military parade in January last year, the North unveiled its new SLBM Pukguksong-5 and the new Iskander-type missile KN-23. In October 2020, Pyongyang showed off its new Hwasong-17 ICBM.