Rehearsal for Pyongyang military parade spotted

North Korea appears to have mobilized military equipment for a rehearsal for a parade at Mirim training ground near Pyongyang, according to satellite photos captured by Planet Labs earlier this month.

In footage broadcast by state-controlled Korean Central Televsion, a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is unveiled at a military parade in Pyongyang on Oct. 10, 2020. [YONHAP]

North Korea appears to have mobilized military equipment for a rehearsal for a parade at Mirim training ground near Pyongyang, according to satellite photos captured by Planet Labs earlier this month.

The military equipment includes a transporter erector launcher (TEL), which was frequently highlighted in past military parades.

A TEL vehicle is used to transport missiles to a launch site, raise the missiles to the desired launch angle, then fire them. TELs enhance the mobility of a missile arsenal by allowing them to launched from different locations.

Ongoing North Korean preparations for a military parade were acknowledged on Thursday by Lee Sung-jun, a spokesman for Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In a regular briefing, Lee told reporters, “South Korean and U.S. authorities have been tracking and monitoring personnel and vehicles in relevant areas since the end of last year,” but declined to specify which vehicles are involved.

Recent satellite photos of the Mirim parade training ground taken by Planet Labs on Jan. 2 show up to 13,500 people involved in rehearsals for the parade.

North Korea is expected to hold a military parade on Feb. 8, which marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army.

Pyongyang could use a big parade to show off weapons systems under development, such as solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or the kind of surveillance drones it sent into the South in a brazen incursion last month.

The Hwasong-17 ICBM, which the North successfully tested for the first time in November, was first unveiled at a parade marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the regime’s ruling Workers’ Party in October 2020.

The parade training ground at Mirim is laid out along the same ground pattern of Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, where most of the regime’s celebratory parades are held, but without the buildings.

But it is no longer the only venue of its sort.

According to Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, the border city of Sinuiju recently completed renovations of its central square to resemble the square in Pyongyang.

The Sinuiju version of the square features a smaller replica of the Grand People’s Study House, propaganda signs with the same slogans as those in Kim Il Sung Square and a marble and gold viewing platform for officials.

But the square in Sinuiju follows a different road layout from Kim Il-Sung Square.

The newly renovated square was revealed by the KCNA through coverage of a state-organized mass rally, where workers chanted slogans and pledged to carry out government policies decided at last month’s Workers’ Party Central Committee plenary session.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]