“FULL-FLEDGED NUCLEAR POWER”
Analysts said that the scale and scope of the weaponry on display showed advances which represented a challenge to the United States.
“They’ve shown more ICBMs in the latest parade than they’ve ever shown before, consistent with a longstanding directive from Kim Jong Un on mass producing nuclear weapons and delivery systems,” US-based analyst Ankit Panda told AFP.
This is an issue, he said, as Washington has planned its homeland missile defence system to deal with a ‘limited’ missile threat from North Korea.
“North Korea has now demonstrated that their nuclear forces are far from ‘limited’,” he said.
Other analysts said that by parading more of Kim’s most advanced Hwasong-17 missiles than have ever been seen before, Pyongyang was sending a clear message.
“This is North Korea trying to declare itself a full-fledged nuclear power,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul told AFP.
NEXT GENERATION
For years, Pyongyang’s state media never mentioned Kim’s children – Seoul’s spy agency believes he has three with his wife Ri – but he unveiled Ju Ae at an intercontinental ballistic missile launch in November last year.
Since then, the 10-year-old has appeared alongside her father at multiple high-profile events, most recently a banquet Tuesday to mark the army’s founding anniversary.
Analysts say she is the equivalent of a North Korean “princess” and that her constant appearances with her father could indicate she is his anointed successor.
Kim Jong Un’s own father, Kim Jong Il, selected him to be his successor over his elder children because he most resembled him.
North Korea has held four night-time military parades in recent years – including the latest one.
The parade comes after North Korea vowed to expand and intensify military drills to ensure its readiness for war, following a record-breaking year of weapons tests, including firing its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile.
Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, including mass-producing tactical nuclear weapons and developing new missiles for nuclear counterstrikes.