It was expected that Americans would wake up on Saturday morning to news of another North Korean nuclear missile test, their sixth such demonstration of the country’s nuclear capability. Instead, the country’s dictator Kim Jung-un decided to celebrate 105th anniversary of his grandfather’s birth with a massive parade showing the nation’s alleged military force.
Saturday’s The Day of the Sun parade, considered to be the biggest holiday of the year for North Korea, stood in stark contrast to previous years according to Al-Jazeera, as Jung-un and his nation’s military trotted out what is believed to be brand new long-range and submarine-based missiles the DPRK now allegedly possesses. Military analysts believe the new weaponry includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, with the parade being used as a warning sign and show of defiance to the United States and its allies.
Looks may be deceiving, however, as some are skeptical that some of the advanced missiles displayed aren’t anything more than models of what North Korea desires to one day create according to Al-Jazeera:
The display suggested that Pyongyang was working towards a “new concept” of ICBM, Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, told the Reuters news agency.
“However, North Korea has a habit of showing off new concepts in parades before they ever test or launch them,” Hanham said. “It is still early days for these missile designs”.
Analysts will analyze the video of the parade in upcoming days, looking at everything from the housing the missiles are stored within to the pressure being put on the trucks carrying them, in order to conclude if they are indeed legit.
North Korea was not bashful in letting it be known Saturday that any attack against their country will result in an instant nuclear counterpunch, The New York Times reports:
“If they attempt a full-scale war, we will respond with a full-scale war,” Choe Ryong-hae, a senior official in the ruling Workers’ Party and a key aide to Mr. Kim, said in a speech before the parade. “If they start a nuclear war, we will respond with nuclear strikes.”
North Korea’s continued refusal to engage the United States in any sort of real discussion over their nuclear program has been an issue for years, but now with a fiery Donald Trump in the White House, an especially tense subject. North Korea recently blamed Trump’s ‘aggressive tweets‘ for the rising tensions between the two sides, while Trump has said on numerous occasions Kim Jun-Un’s country is ‘looking for trouble’ with their repeated flexing of nuclear arms.
(Via The New York Times/ Aljazeera)