SEOUL: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on Friday (Sep 8) marked the country’s founding anniversary with a parade and diplomatic exchanges in which he vowed to deepen ties with China and Russia.
The event, attended by a slew of high-ranking Chinese and Russian officials, featured Pyongyang’s “paramilitary forces”, state media said, rather than soldiers in the regular army, and it did not appear to showcase the country’s banned weaponry including intercontinental ballistic missiles.
North Korea supplements its already large military with various paramilitary, reserve, and security groups such as the army-affiliated Worker-Peasant Red Guards (WPRG).
Leader Kim observed the parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang and held talks with a visiting Chinese delegation led by Liu Guozhong, vice-premier of the State Council of China.
Liu’s arrival on Friday hinted at Pyongyang’s continued reopening of a border that has been largely sealed since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: CNA
