"Our revolutionary forces are capable of dealing with any kind of war being waged by the US," the North's leader said at his rare public speech during a military parade for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party on Saturday.
Accompanied by senior military officials, the North's young leader, clad in black, stood at an upper podium to preside over the proceedings held at Kim Il-sung Square at the center of Pyongyang, according to footage broadcast live by the state-run Korean Central Television. "The US has pushed for terrible wars and is posing new threats of aggression. It has also stood in our way with unprecedented sanctions and blockades if we intend to develop our economy," Kim said.
The North's military parade was closely watched by outside experts to get a glimpse of the North's latest missile programs and other new military equipment. The footage showed that a stream of tanks and armored vehicles carrying missiles and weaponry rolled through the square during the lavish parade, the first since July 2013 and the fifth since Kim took office in late 2011. South Korea's military officials said that North Korea displayed its road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles with an improved version of warheads, known as the KN-08. The KN-08, known to have a range of some 12,000 kilometers, is capable of flying as far as the US mainland. But the North has not conducted a test of that missile.
"The North demonstrated KN-08 missiles with round-shaped warheads," said a military official, asking not to be named. "More analysis is needed to gauge whether the North is capable of miniaturizing nuclear warheads (to put on its KN-08 missile)." The North first showed off a life-size mockup of what appears to be the KN-08 during a military parade in April 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the North's late founder, Kim Il-sung.
Pyongyang also put on display an improved version of multiple rocket launchers which can reach the central provinces of South Korea. But the North did not showcase submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which it has claimed it successfully fired in May. North Korea's media reported that the North's rockets "equipped with miniaturized and diversified nuclear warheads" could attack its enemy with surgical strikes. But the North's claim cannot be verified by outside experts.
YNA/MNA
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