North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has rolled out the red carpet for a host of foreign dignitaries, treating them to a spectacle of color and dancing, and all signs suggest he’ll also be showing off his country’s latest military hardware in a pomp-filled parade.
North Korea has kept celebratory plans for the 80th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea tightly under wraps – much like the secretive and isolated state has done in the past with significant dates.
Images released by North Korean state media showed a huge celebration at Pyongyang’s massive May Stadium on Thursday, but the main event could be a parade in the capital Pyongyang, potentially on Friday night, involving tens of thousands of people, according to predictions from the South Korean military.
The anniversary celebration comes a month after the heavily sanctioned Kim scored a major diplomatic victory by traveling to Beijing for China’s massive military parade, where he had the rare chance to stand alongside political heavyweights Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the global stage.
Kim emerged from the visit with deeper strategic ties and a renewed friendship with China, North Korea’s longtime political and economic patron, as well as an increased vigor to pursue his missile and nuclear weapons program.
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