The global Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK), made up 40 human rights groups from all over the world, is urging North Korea to change its ways.
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(Takuro Yabe/Kyodo News via AP).
Public gatherings are planned in cities around the country, and Daily NK, a Seoul-based news website with sources in North Korea, reported this week that North Koreans were put to work cleaning and decorating for the occasion.
A cavalcade of armoured vehicles and ballistic missiles is expected to rumble through the capital Pyongyang accompanied by marching troops.
A formation of military planes flying over the proceedings formed the symbol of the Workers’ Party – a hammer, sickle andwriting brush – and the number 70, to Kim’s evident delight.
“It is a message to the world…but also it’s intended for a domestic audience, it reinforces Kim Jong Un’s military credentials”.
Kim Jong-Un boasted on Saturday that his country could fight any war provoked by U.S. “imperialists”, as he presided over a vast military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.
As night fell after the parade – a tribute to the ruling party that three generations of the Kim dynasty have ruled over – Pyongyang’s skyline was lit up with a fireworks display over the banks of the Taedong River. He spent most of the speech stressing what he said was his government’s commitment to improving the lives of his people.
Live TV footage showed Kim smiling several times when he spoke with Liu through an interpreter during the military parade. Kim, clothed in black, walked down a red carpet & saluted his honor guard. Satellite images released this week by 38 North, a North Korean affairs website affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, showed that organizers have been gathering troops and equipment for the parade at an airbase near Pyongyang for the past six months.
Liu Yunshan had met with Kim a day earlier, when the North Korean leader was handed a letter from his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Kim said the presence of Liu might have prevented the North from revealing its most provocative weapons.
A huge military display is under way in North Korea, marking the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party.
Convoys of trucks carrying soldiers had been seen moving towards the centre of Pyongyang.
A few foreign analysts believe the particularly strong emphasis this year on making the anniversary of the party’s foundation such a lavish fete is a sign that Mr. Kim is trying to build up his own stature along with that of the party relative to the military.
“The Chinese side is willing to seek closer communication and deepen cooperation, pushing for a long-term, healthy and stable development of the Sino-DPRK ties”, Xi said in the letter cited by Xinhua, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
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Heavy overnight rain was reported to be delaying the start of proceedings.
