Tens of thousands of soldiers have marched in flawless formation alongside tanks through the capital Pyongyang.
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Although no world leaders will be attending, the normally isolated and quiet North Korean capital has been flooded with tourists, worldwide media and delegations ranging from ethnic Koreans living overseas to obscure Russian and Mongolian groups dedicated to studying North Korea’s political ideas.
Impoverished North Korea and rich, democratic South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty.
The official news outlets have been full of reports about visitors from places including Spain, Iceland and the Philippines – many of them from “friendship associations” of socialist sympathizers – arriving in Pyongyang for the anniversary celebrations.
Kim held control of the party, and membership became highly coveted as it meant better job prospects, status and quality of life for elite North Koreans. By August, there were more than 500 tents, 600 trucks and 170 armored and military vehicles at the air base, 38 North reported.
An expert at the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis, a security think-tank in Seoul, Jin Moo Kim, said North Korea revealed a new 300-millimeter rocket launcher. It has carried out three nuclear weapons tests since 2006 in defiance of the worldwide community.
Last month, it announced it was restarting its main nuclear facility Yongbyon and that it was improving its nuclear weapons “in quality and quantity”.
North Korea did not launch what it calls “a series of satellites” before the anniversary, but analysts said there is still a chance that the North could go ahead with the launch within this year.
China is committed to enhance and develop friendly and cooperative ties with North Korea, a senior official said on Saturday.
Military vehicles line up on a road in Pyongyang on October 10, 2015.
The Workers’ Party of Korea has had an uninterrupted grip on power in North Korea since the country was founded in 1948.
Mr Kim paid tribute to his family’s legacy on Friday with a midnight visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which serves as the mausoleum for his father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founding leader.
He took the helm in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Illinois.
Kim makes these comments during the ruling party’s 70th-anniversary celebrations.
Kim said that he was ready for war with the United States.
The North excels at such choreographed displays of military muscle, which aim to boost pride and patriotism at home while sending a defiant message to an global community that has sought, without success, to pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear weapons ambitions.
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It was founded 70 years ago, after World War II and following the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea. The attendance of China’s No. 5 official underscores the attempt to mend fences between the two countries.
