Seoul, South Korea (AP) – North Korea launched developmental ballistic missiles designed to be launched from submarines and other military equipment in a parade that punctuated leader Kim Jong Un’s challenging calls to expand its nuclear weapons program.
State media said Kim took center stage on Thursday night, celebrating a meeting of the big ruling party, where Kim pledged maximum efforts to strengthen his nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian rivals and the American country to contain what he described as US hostility.
During the eight-day Workers Party congress that ended on Tuesday, Kim also revealed plans to save the country’s economy amid U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear ambitions, pandemic-related border closures and natural disasters that destroyed plantations.
The economic setbacks left Kim nothing to show his ambitious diplomacy with President Donald Trump, which derailed due to differences in the exchange of sanctions and denuclearization measures in the North, and pushed Kim into what is clearly the most difficult moment of his government nine years.
Kim’s comments are likely intended to pressure Joe Biden’s next U.S. government, who previously called the North Korean leader a “thug” and accused Trump of pursuing the spectacle rather than significant restrictions on the nuclear capabilities of the North. Kim did not rule out negotiations, but said the fate of bilateral relations would depend on Washington abandoning its hostile policy towards Pyongyang.
The Central News Agency of Korea released photos of Kim wearing a black fur hat and leather jacket on Friday, smiling widely and gesturing from a podium as thousands of soldiers and civilian spectators filled the Kim Il Sung square, which takes the name of his grandfather and founder of North Korea.
The agency said spectators roared as troops launched the country’s most advanced strategic weapons, including ballistic missiles launched by submarines that it described as the “most powerful weapon in the world”
Photos released by state media showed trucks carrying what appeared to be a new ballistic missile launched by a submarine, larger than those the North had previously tested.
The North also displayed a variety of solid-fuel weapons designed to be fired from mobile ground launchers, which potentially expands the North’s ability to attack targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases there.
The agency also said that the parade featured other missiles capable of “completely annihilating enemies in a preventive way outside (our) territory”. But it was not immediately clear whether the description referred to intercontinental ballistic missiles.
As of Friday afternoon, state media in the North did not release an image of the parade that included ICBMs.
During its previous military parade in October, the North revealed what appeared to be its biggest ICBM. The country’s previous long-range missiles demonstrated a potential ability to reach the depths of the U.S. continent during flight tests in 2017.
The North has been developing ballistic missile systems launched by submarines for years. The acquisition of an operating system would alarm its rivals and neighbors, because missiles fired from submerged vessels are more difficult to detect in advance.
Still, Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at the Seoul Institute of Far East Studies and a former military officer who participated in inter-Korean military talks, said that the presumably new North SLBM could be an engineering model that would require further development. before it is ready to be tested and implanted.
While Kim Jong Un during the congress promised to develop nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons, it would take “considerable time” for the North to overcome financial and technological difficulties in acquiring such systems, the analyst said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it was studying the weapons displayed by the North, but did not immediately release a detailed assessment.
It was not immediately clear whether Kim Jong Un delivered a speech during the parade. North Korean state television is expected to release footage of the parade later on Friday.
Nuclear-powered submarines were just one of many advanced military assets that were on Kim’s wish list during the congress, which also included long-range ICBMs that could more reliably target the U.S. continent, new tactical nuclear weapons and warheads , spy satellites and hypersonic weapons.
It is not clear whether the North is fully capable of acquiring such systems. While the country is believed to have accumulated at least dozens of nuclear weapons, external estimates of the exact status of its nuclear and missile programs vary widely.