Kim Jong Un supervises over military parade to mark army founding

PYONGYANG, Feb. 9 — Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), on Thursday supervised over a grand
military parade displaying the country’s most powerful weapons, including
the Hwasong 15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state television
reported.

During the 90-minute parade in freezing weather, Kim delivered a speech,
calling on the DPRK armed forces, the Korean People’s Army (KPA), to
safeguard peace on the Korean Peninsula while criticizing the United States
for “sabotaging” regional and world peace. Commending the KPA for its
fighting records over the past 70 years, Kim urged the soldiers to maintain
the revolutionary tradition set by former DPRK leaders.Kim watched and
cheered KPA officers and soldiers from 50 units, including missile forces,
army, air force, navy, special operation force, artillery force and armored
forces. The parade also recalled the history of the KPA, with 10 units
holding flags of the early divisions established after the founding of the
DPRK in 1948.

This is the second time in 10 months that the DPRK has held a military
parade amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK changed the
official date for celebrating the founding of its armed forces from April
25 to Feb. 8 to emphasize the role played by DPRK founder Kim Il Sung in
building up the KPA into a regular armed force from a guerrilla force in
1948. The parade also drew wide attention because it took place one day
before the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea. But
the DPRK said the timing was purely a coincidence and denied allegations of
“provocation” by some South Korean conservative media and politicians.
Pyongyang is sending a high-level delegation to the Games’ opening ceremony
Friday and hundreds of DPRK athletes, artists, cheerleaders and traditional
sports demonstrators will participate in the competition. A scheduled joint
entry by the two teams of the DPRK and South Korea holding a flag of
national reunification is meant to highlight the wish of both sides to
realize reconciliation and reunification. – XINHUA