North Korea is set to display some of its latest and most advanced military hardware on Friday during a parade in Pyongyang to mark the founding of its ruling party.
Kim Jong Un’s show of force celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea comes at a time of growing strategic allegiance with China and Russia, and follows another massive military parade in Beijing last month, where Mr Kim, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin met as a trio for the first time.
Analysts expect Friday’s pre-dawn parade to showcase North Korea’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile – the Hwasong-20 – along with a series of hypersonic weapons, marking a significant leap in its strategic capabilities.
For the first time in years, the parade will be attended by senior foreign officials from Russia, China, and Vietnam, signalling Pyongyang’s strengthened alliances and international backing.
On Monday, North Korean state media confirmed the participation of Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese dignitaries in the parade, without revealing exactly when it would take place.
State media said China’s premier Li Qiang will visit from 9 to 11 October, leading a delegation to mark the 80th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea. The chair of the United Russia Party, Dmitry Medvedev, who is a close aide to Putin and is a former president of Russia, will also attend, alongside Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam.
“There are signs of North Korea preparing for a military parade involving tens of thousands of people, which our military is closely monitoring,” Colonel Lee Sung Jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a regular press briefing.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff also said they had observed the movement of vehicles and certain military equipment, though they did not disclose further details.
North Korea’s military parades are as much a global muscle-flex as they are a celebration for domestic consumption. This year, Pyongyang is also expected to showcase a series of hypersonic weapons designed to threaten US naval forces in the region, analysts cited by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
North Korean hawks and analysts widely expect Mr Kim to unveil the “next-generation” Hwasong-20, which would be powered by a new solid-fuel rocket.
It was on 2 September this year that North Korea revealed the first information about the Hwasong-20. Days later, Mr Kim personally supervised a high-thrust solid-fuel rocket engine test, describing it as “a significant change” in the modernisation of North Korea’s strategic nuclear forces.
According to state media, it was the ninth and final test in the missile’s development cycle. Photographs released by North Korean outlets showed what appeared to be the warhead of the Hwasong-20. While the engine tests were reported to have been successful, the new missile has yet to be tested operationally.
North Korea opened an arms exhibition in Pyongyang this weekend and Mr Kim issued a direct warning to the US, saying that North Korea will allocate special assets to key targets in direct response to the buildup of US forces in South Korea.
“I believe our enemies should be concerned about the direction [in which] their security environment is evolving,” Mr Kim said. North Korea “will undoubtedly develop additional military measures” to respond to the US military buildup, he added, without elaborating further.
North Korea’s Hwasong-11Ma and Hwasong-16B missiles – both shown at its latest defence expo – are also likely to be displayed at the parade.
The Hwasong-11Ma is a variant of the Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missile. It is designed to be launched from a 10-wheeled transporter-erector-launcher that can carry two missiles simultaneously.
It is unclear whether the Hwasong-11Ma is fully operational, tested, or still in its development phase. The demonstrations so far are from exhibitions.
The Hwasong-16B is a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile with a hypersonic glide warhead. North Korea conducted the third test-launch of the missile in January this year.
Mr Kim last month attended the “Victory Parade” in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat at the end of WW2. Mr Kim arrived in Beijing with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, and rubbed shoulders with Mr Xi, Putin and other world leaders.
The visit was significant as the reclusive leader rarely travels abroad, and it was the first time he had attended a major multilateral event during his 14-year rule.
The parade comes as US president Donald Trump and new liberal South Korean president Lee Jae Myung have repeatedly expressed their hopes of restarting denuclearisation talks with North Korea. North Korea has shunned diplomacy with the US and South Korea since Mr Kim’s earlier round of talks with Mr Trump collapsed in 2019.
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