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The new ICBM, dubbed by weapons experts as the largest mobile missile of its kind, has become the icing on the cake of a parade of soldiers and heavy military equipment lined up down to the smallest detail.
The parade was held at midnight to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party, and a recording of the event was shown on Saturday. What was seen during the parade confirmed weeks of expert speculation that Kim Chong In was going to take advantage of this military event and send a subtle message to the United States, which is eagerly awaiting the presidential elections.
“The new ICBM is undoubtedly Kim Chong Ino’s new ‘strategic weapon’, which he promised to the world in December 2019. North Korea has developed the weapon in parallel with diplomacy with Washington,” he said Ankitas Panda, author of Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea and contributor to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The spectacular parade, which culminated with fighter jets and fireworks, was attended by Kim Chong Ino, who wore a gray suit and glasses for a special occasion, ready to show everyone once again his undeniable authoritarian control and, to his surprise, his sensitive emotions: a North Korean leader. In the context of sanctions and natural disasters, he wiped away his tears.
In an inflammatory speech, Kim Chong In vowed to use the country’s existing arsenal only in the face of specific threats. He avoided mentioning the United States and hinted at the readiness of reserves to resume communication with an opponent in South Korea in the event of a coronavirus pandemic.
“We will continue to increase our military power to prevent all possible threats, including nuclear ones, that are constantly exacerbated by hostile forces.” If any power tries to use military force against us, we will react by mobilizing our most powerful forces and punishing them, “said Kim Chong In. .
The United States, as soon as the parade images were released, immediately received criticism from North Korea. According to Washington, he was very “disappointed” to see Pyongyang continuing to develop dangerous weapons projects, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday, citing an anonymous US official.
US Defense Department spokesman John Supple says Washington has analyzed the parade in North Korea along with allies in Asia.
Seoul called an extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council on Sunday to discuss the parade in Pyongyang.
This display of military might is the first time North Korea has introduced new nuclear military equipment into the country since Kim Chong In began negotiations with Trump in 2018 on unprecedented terms.
Kim Chong In has been increasingly hostile to Trump since his second official meeting ended in February 2019 with no tangible results, with no agreement being reached to reduce North Korea’s nuclear arsenal or ease sanctions that were suffocating the economy of the country.
While early state media reports for the parade highlighted that the North Korean missiles had inflicted terror and fear on the country’s enemies, the new ICBM was not specifically mentioned.
The news from North Korean news agencies describe in detail how viewers viewed the country’s strategic weapons, “with great joy and pride.”
North Korea’s largest newspaper, Rodong Sinmum, usually six pages in length, turned out to be thicker on Saturday: an additional eight pages were devoted to a special event, a nightly military parade.
A total of eleven pages and more than a hundred photographs that illustrate the parade.
“Kim Chong In’s speech was moderate enough, he seemed to have specifically avoided provoking D. Trump before the elections, but he did everything possible to achieve the objectives of domestic politics: to increase the unity of the country. He also used the phrase “war deterrence” instead of “nuclear deterrence,” and suggested that the country’s nuclear weapons were a means of self-defense, “said Duyeon Kim of the Center for a New American Security in Seoul.
Still, the night parade very clearly showed the progress made over the past two years by Kim Chong In’s weapons program, despite Trump’s claim that North Korea “no longer poses a nuclear threat.”
Experts say that the parade in Pyongyang illustrates very clearly that no matter who wins the US presidential election in early November (be it Democrat Joe Biden or Republican D. Trump), North Korea will remain one of the biggest strategic challenges for the United States.
New ICBM: An improved version of the Hwasong-15 missile, tested in Pyongyang in November 2017. Visually, according to experts in the field, it appears capable of carrying a large payload, like many warheads, perhaps even capable of outwitting targets. defense systems.
Weapons experts also spotted the Pukguksong-4A missile at the parade, an underwater weapon named as the most advanced solid-fuel missile ever developed by the Kim Chong In regime.
The parade revealed that North Korea is also successfully expanding its arsenal of short-range missiles and mobile launch systems, making it particularly effective in planning rapid attacks.
Since 2019, Pyongyang has tested more than 30 of them. These short-range missiles include a superconducting KN-23 capable of carrying a nuclear payload, hitting any target in South Korea (including US forces south of Seoul) in just two minutes with no problems.
The material published by the state media also reveals several problems that the Kimgong Ino regime faces when developing new weapons projects. The North Korean leader could not show that he could dramatically increase the number of specialized trucks used to transport and conceal large missiles.
Furthermore, solid fuel for ICBMs is not yet produced, as several disarmament experts predicted.
North Korea is currently approaching its worst economic slowdown since 1997, according to Fitch Solutions. The closing of walls and flooding due to the coronavirus pandemic contributed to this, destroying an important part of the harvest. In August, Kim Chong In issued a very rare warning about the state of the economy, telling ruling party leaders that the country faced “unexpected and imminent challenges.” He also added that economic development plans “should be postponed.”
Speaking about the challenges the country has faced in recent years and still faces, Kim Chong In has lamented and blamed the economic sanctions, typhoons and floods initiated by the United States for the disasters.
“How much our people have had to experience and endure this year … The patriotic dedication of our soldiers of the People’s Army in the front line of quarantine and in eliminating the consequences of natural disasters cannot be spoken without tears in our eyes. I’m sorry, it’s very painful to be without them this great night, “Kim Chong In said excitedly.
According to BNS, analysts agree that the new ICBMs on display are the world’s largest road-launched liquid-fuel missiles. Jeffrey
Lewis, of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, said the new missiles were “clearly designed to crush the US missile defense system in Alaska.”
If these missiles carried three or four warheads, the United States would have to spend about a billion dollars. wrote on Twitter for $ 12-16 interceptors that would have to defend against each of those missiles.
“At that price, I’m pretty sure North Korea can add warlords faster than we can add successors,” Lewis said. North Korean missiles are estimated to be 24 m long and 2.5 m in diameter.
According to specialist Markus Schiller, the missiles can carry 100 tons of fuel, which would take more than an hour to fill. The missiles are so large and heavy that, in his opinion, they are practically unusable. “It doesn’t make sense unless there is a threat to leveling games, for example, to send a message …” be very scared, “Schiller said.
North Korean observers regularly warn that the Pyongyang technique on display during parades can only be a mock-up. However, the missiles in question were carried during the parade on 11-axis self-propelled platforms never seen before. “That platform can be scarier than a rocket,” said Melissa Hanham of the Open Nuclear Network.
Kim Chong In is sending a message to the United States that North Korea’s capabilities are growing and that if Washington does not want to reach an agreement now, it will have to conclude an agreement that will be worse, Andrei Lankov of Korea Risk Group told AFP. .
More than 12 hours after the parade aired on North Korea’s state television, Trump wrote nothing about it on Twitter. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has yet to mention the parade.
Trump emphasized Kim Chong In’s promise to stop conducting nuclear tests and ICBMs, while Shin Beom-chul, an analyst at the Korea National Strategy Research Institute, said Pyongyang had not crossed the red line by demonstrating instead of launching the missile.
“But it also means that North Korea could hold a release if Trump is re-elected and ignores the North Korean issue” and “if Biden is elected and doesn’t listen to North Korea,” he said.
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