SEOUL: North Korea showed off new drones and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) during a military parade in Pyongyang attended by high-ranking guests from Russia and China, German news agency (dpa) quoted local media reports.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that on display during the Victory Day military parade on Thursday night were advanced drones and long-range missiles, including Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 ICBMs.
July 27, which marks the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, which put an end to the fighting in 1953, is celebrated in Pyongyang as Victory Day.
The armistice divided Korea into two states along the 38th parallel. Some two to four million Koreans were killed in the war between 1950 and 1953.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was among the members of the Russian and Chinese delegations watching the parade from a grandstand with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, as marching soldiers and passing armoured vehicles and missile carriers filed by on Kim Il Sung Square.
Kim also took Shoigu to an arms exhibition.
North Korea is largely isolated internationally because of its nuclear missile programme, but maintains loose contact with two permanent members of the UN Security Council – China and Russia.
The fact that a Russian delegation led by Shoigu took part in the parade has raised concerns worldwide about increased military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
Shoigu and Kim had previously “exchanged issues of mutual concern in the field of national defence and security and the estimation of and opinions on the regional and international security environment and reached a consensus of views”, North Korea’s state broadcaster Voice of Korea reported. – BERNAMA-dpa
