Images suggest North preparing for military parade

Satellite images appear to show North Korea preparing to hold a military parade, according to an analysis by Voice of America (VOA) released on Tuesday.

A new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile is shown at a North Korean military parade held in Pyongyang on Feb. 8 in this photograph released by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. [YONHAP]

Satellite images appear to show North Korea preparing to hold a military parade, according to an analysis by Voice of America (VOA) released on Tuesday.

The photos, taken by Planet Labs on Sunday and Monday, captured the presence of between 50 and 100 vehicles in an open space at the Mirim parade training ground in the capital Pyongyang, VOA said.

The site is where the regime parks vehicles and rehearses processions of people and military equipment ahead of such parades.

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

While it remains unclear on what occasion the regime would hold the potential parade, one possibility is July 27, which marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice.

Another possible date for the parade seemingly under preparation is Sept. 9, known as “Republic Day” in the North. The holiday marks the establishment of the present regime.

July 27 is celebrated as “Victory Day” in the North, which claims it defeated a U.S. invasion of its territory in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The war began on June 25, 1950, when the North Korean military under the direction of regime founder and then-leader Kim Il Sung mounted a massive invasion of South Korea.

The regime last held military parades on the holiday in 1993 and 2013 to mark the 40th and 60th anniversaries of the signing of the armistice.

The regime’s celebrations are typically grander in scale on every fifth or tenth anniversary of what it considers key milestones, such as the birth of Kim or the founding of its armed forces.

Oh Kyung-seob, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said a parade could be Pyongyang’s low-cost method of garnering attention.

“Since the North has no good tools to counter strengthened South Korea-U.S. extended deterrence, holding a military parade is a way for the regime to attract external attention at a relatively small diplomatic cost,” Oh said, adding that a parade could also serve to “bolster internal solidarity by putting a spotlight on the armed forces, which is the only sector where the Kim Jong-un regime can claim to have achieved progress.”

The North previously held a military parade in February to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces.

At that parade, it trotted out a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, which it later claimed to have successfully tested last month.

In an editorial published Monday, the ruling Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun recalled the “proud memories of the glorious victory generation” that fought in the war and claimed the regime would “be always victorious,” leaving open the possibility that the regime could hold a parade to highlight what it claims as a triumph over U.S. military might.

North Korea suffered the highest number of military deaths of all the countries involved in the conflict, with 294,151 soldiers dead, 91,206 missing, and 229,849 wounded, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.

Over 2 million Korean civilians died, while the North’s industrial capacity was reduced by over 75 percent and almost every substantial building in the North’s territory was destroyed, according to various sources.

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