In show of force, North Korea stages giant military parade

North Korean female soldiers march during a parade for the 'Day of the Sun' festival on Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 15 2017. How Hwee Young/EPA

Kim Jong-un waves during the parade. How Hwee-Young / EPA

Soldiers look out of a military vehicle during the military parade celebrating the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong-un. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

Military vehicles carrying missiles drive past during the parade, which took place as tension over nuclear issues rise in the region. How Hwee-Young / EPA

North Korean soldiers carrying flags as they march past a portrait of late leader Kim Il-sung. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

North Korean women wave and cheer as they look toward their leader Kim Jong-un. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

University students carrying the national flag and two bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il during the parade where the North displayed its military might amid tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

Fireworks exploding in the background while North Koreans participate in a mass dance. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

Commandos march across the Kim Il-sung Square during the military parade. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

Pyongyang // North Korea’s weapons of war rolled through Pyongyang streets on Saturday, as the regime flaunted its intercontinental ballistic missiles, vowing “nuclear justice” in response to any atomic attack.

Kim Jong-un mounted the spectacular show of strength as tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions are stretched to the limit, with US president Donald Trump deploying an aircraft carrier battle group to the region.

Wearing a western-style black suit and white collared shirt, Mr Kim was pictured on state-run television laughing heartily and clapping while watching soldiers, tanks and missiles on display in Kim Il-sung Square.

The North Korean leader did not speak during the annual parade — which celebrates the birthday of his late grandfather Kim Il-sung in 1912, the regime’s founding ruler — but a top official warned that the North would stand up to any threat posed by the US.

Choe Ryong-hae said Mr Trump was guilty of “creating a war situation” on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching American forces to the region.

“We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack,” said Mr Choe, widely seen by analysts as one of Mr Kim’s closest aides.

The parade, the annual highlight of North Korea’s most important holiday, came amid growing international worries that North Korea may be preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a major missile launch, such as its first flight test of a ballistic missile capable of reaching US shores.

After a 21-gun salute, tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen goose-stepped through Kim Il-sung Square turning their eyes towards the high balcony from where Mr Kim watched, flanked by officers and officials

Some detachments carried assault rifles or rocket-propelled grenades, others were equipped with night-vision goggles and daubed in face paint.

One troupe was made up of sword-wielding women.

Tanks came next followed by the objects of world concern.

A total of 56 missiles of 10 types were displayed, culminating in enormous rockets on articulated trailers and on 16-wheel vehicles.

The hardware included what appeared to be new intercontinental ballistic missiles or prototypes, and the Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missile, which Pyongyang successfully test-fired last August.

The nuclear-armed North is under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programmes, and has ambitions to build a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the US mainland — something Mr Trump has vowed “won’t happen”.

Ostensibly Saturday’s event was to mark the 105th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth — a date known as the Day of the Sun in the North — and a squadron of planes flew overhead forming the number.

But it was also intended to send an unmistakable message to the US about the isolated country’s military might.

Mr Choe declared that the North was a “powerful nuclear-armed state in the Orient and Asia’s leader in rocketry”.

It could “beat down enemies with the power of nuclear justice”, he said.

In Pyongyang, residents are careful to choose their words, and kept on message with the government’s official line.

An Yong-ae, a Pyongyang resident who marched in Saturday’s parade said: “We don’t care whether the situation is tense or not, we’ll definitely win because we’ve got our Marshal [Kim Jong-un]..”

Another participant of the parade, O Song-rim, said: “We follow the direction set by our Marshal, under the leadership of our party, and all our people and army will always stick to our own way — that’s what we showed the world with today’s big event.”

The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and Pyongyang said it needed nuclear weapons to defend itself against a possible US invasion.

It has carried out five nuclear tests — two of them last year — and multiple missile launches, one of which involved several rockets landing in waters close to Japan last month.

Speculation that it could conduct a sixth blast in the coming days to coincide with the anniversary has reached fever pitch, with specialist US website 38North describing its Punggye-ri test site as “primed and ready” and White House officials saying military options were “already being assessed”.

After dispatching the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its battle group to the Korean peninsula, Mr Trump said: "We are sending an armada."

“He is doing the wrong thing,” he said of Mr Kim. “He’s making a big mistake.”

China, the North’s sole major ally, and Russia have both urged restraint, with Beijing’s foreign minister Wang Yi warning on Friday that “conflict could break out at any moment”.

The North is aiming its message at China as well as the US, analysts said.

Beijing’s priority remains preventing any instability on its doorstep, and it has been unnerved by the sabre-rattling.

But diplomats in Pyongyang point out that the North raises its rhetoric every spring, when Washington and Seoul hold annual joint military exercises that it views as preparations for invasion.

*Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Bloomberg