Russians, Chinese officials attend North Korea anniversary parade

AFP | Seoul

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

North Korea marked its founding anniversary with a parade attended by leader Kim Jong Un as well as Russian diplomats and a high-ranking Chinese delegation, state media said yesterday, as Pyongyang deepens ties with Moscow and Beijing.

The Friday event featured Pyongyang’s “paramilitary forces”, state media said, rather than soldiers in the regular army, and it did not showcase the country’s banned weaponry including intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Images in state media showed uniformed paramilitary brigades, including some riding tractors or in large red trucks.

Kim, flanked by his young daughter, looked on smiling and clapping. Kim Il Sung Square “was full of excitement and joy of the spectators significantly celebrating the birthday of their great powerful country”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

“All the participants paid the highest glory and warmest thanks to Kim Jong Un, peerless patriot and ever-victorious ironwilled commander.” Kim met with the visiting Chinese delegation led by Liu Guozhong, vice-premier of the State Council, the second such visit by top officials from Beijing in six weeks, as Pyongyang shows signs of easing its strict Covid-era border controls.

The two sides announced their aims of “further intensifying the multi-faceted coordination and cooperation” between the two countries, according to a separate KCNA report.