Source: China News Weekly
It belongs to "natural"
On the evening of October 10th, local time, in the autumn rain, a military parade to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea was held in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the DPRK, and leaders of various countries attending the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea attended the event.
According to Xinhua news agency, on the evening of October 9 and 10, local time, the 80th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Korean Labour Party was held in Pyongyang. Political Bureau of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Prime Minister of the State Council Li Jing attended the celebration conference, and watched large group gymnastics, art and parades, etc. During the celebration, Li Jing also spoke with the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Sulin, the President of the Party of Russian Federation, and Deputy Chairman of the Federal Security Conference, Medvedev.
The parade is North Korea's first public parade since September 2023, and it is North Korea's eighth consecutive midnight parade since 2020.
At about 4 p.m. on October 11, the North Korean Central Television broadcasted a parade of newspapers. Images showed two intercontinental ballistic missile launches of the "Mars Kanon 20" crossing the square. This was the first public debut of this new type of strategic nuclear carrier known as the "Big Killer". In addition, the "Overseas Combat Forces" that had fought on the Russian Kursk front, also "walked in the presidium."
Analysts have pointed out that as the "five-year plan" proposed by the eighth Congress of the Labour Party of the DPRK is about to expire, North Korea announced its new type of nuclear weapons by parade, both indicating that the established goal of "duplicating the nuclear arsenal" will be accomplished smoothly, and also in response to Kim Jong Un's recent statements about "North Korea will never give up nuclear weapons".
"Complete narrative"
As in the past, this North Korean parade was first inspected, followed by the segmentation, and finally the weapons display section.
Before the official start of the parade, the big screen on Kim’s Square showed the video of the parade. Later, there were military music shows and male and female soldiers dancing swords on the square. The parties participating in the parade walked into the square in the splendid shadow, and the big screen simultaneously played the Korean People’s Army training video of paintings including crushed stones in the chest, crushed bricks in the head, drilling circles, crashing the head in the ice, fighting on top of the train.
At the same time, Kim Jong-un took a car from the party’s central building. After arriving at Kim Jong-un Square, he shrugged his hands with senior generals of the People’s Army and checked the military flag. This episode took place outside, and news footage showed that it rained a lot at night, but Kim Jong-un didn’t have an umbrella.
At 10 o'clock in the evening, Kim Jong-un and leaders of various countries participating in the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea boarded the reviewing stand and accepted flowers from North Korean children. Xuan Songyue, deputy minister of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, who accompanied Kim Jong-un to public activities every day, received flowers for Kim Jong-un. North Korean Foreign Minister Cui Shanji was placed next to Medvedev, chairman of the United Russia Party.
The anti-Japanese guerrilla meritorious troops, the British model troops of the Korean War period, the one-line army group stationed on the southern front to deter South Korea participated in the division ceremony; and then, "to defend the honor and dignity of the motherland, to fight boldly to establish legendary military skills, to create the great new history of the Korean People's Army, to fully show the North Korean people's osmosis to the prevailing overseas combat forces party" high-profile out.
Video footage shows that the overseas operational forces squads waved the Russian and North Korean national flags.When the squads passed through the chairmanship, Kim Jong-un greeted the squads, and the chairman of the unified Russian party, Medvedev, smiled.
On August 6, 2024, the Ukrainian army crossed the border between Sumy Oblast in Ukraine and Kursk Oblast in Russia, quickly occupied the Russian border city of Suja, and once controlled hundreds of residential areas and thousands of square kilometers of Russian territory. Since then, Russia and Ukraine have launched the Battle of Kursk, which lasted about seven months. In May 2025, after the Battle of Kursk basically ended, Russian and North Korean officials successively released messages confirming that the North Korean and Russian armies had conducted "joint operations" in Kursk.
On October 9, the day before the parade, the DPRK Labour Party and the party of united Russia adopted a joint statement, in addition to re-memorating the cooperation between the two parties during the battle of Kursk and reaffirming further deepening cooperation, the statement specifically mentioned “the DPRK Labour Party expressed positive solidarity with Russia’s position on mediating the crisis in Ukraine”.
In his pre-military speech, Kim Jong-un expressed his warm encouragement and greetings to all the generals, officers, and soldiers of the overseas operational forces that have reliably executed the orders of the Party and the motherland.
From the anti-Japanese guerrilla to the overseas operational forces, the “complete narrative” of the divisional faction recalls what Kim Jong-un said in his parade speech of “the whole history of celebrating himself (the Labour Party), and the day before he emphasized in particular at the congress celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Labour Party: “Our party has never made a mistake or mistake on the route in its 80 years.”
Light "nuclear" at night
After the parade ended, the weapons display session led by the North Korean "Tianma-20" main battle tank team began. In accordance with usual practice, North Korea's "strategic weapon" has always appeared at the end of this link.
From 2020 to 2022, the "Mars Kanon-17" missile launch vehicle team four times appeared in the North Korean parade, each with four vehicles.In February 2023, North Korea demonstrated more than 10 "Mars Kanon-17" missile launch vehicles at a time in the parade, and a different type of unknown tactical nuclear weapons force "axis", attracted international attention.
This time, the “Mars Kanon 20” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Corps was in charge. The DPRK agency wrote in a press release that when the “most powerful nuclear strategic weapons system” flew into the square, “the audience’s cheers reached their peak.”
A newsreel broadcast by North Korea's Central Television showed that as the "Mars Gun-20" launch vehicle entered the stadium, fireworks bloomed on the bank of the Datong River. The audience cheered and the Korean People's Army generals on the rostrum collectively saluted the launch vehicle. The news clip also specifically captured the scene of foreign guests watching the ceremony raising their mobile phones to take pictures of the launch vehicle.
In terms of appearance, the "Mars Kanon 20" is not obviously different from the current main strategic nuclear carrier "Mars Kanon 17" of North Korea, both of which use 11 rounds of launchers carried. However, this number appears in the parade's launchers numbers are 691 and 692, while the previous 11 rounds of launchers "common guests", which appeared several times in the parade, is the 321 launchers awarded the title of merit by Kim Jong-un.
The launch of the "Mars Kanon 20" missile showed North Korea's "nuclear arsenal multiplication" plan, which again accelerated the development and production of nuclear carriers. At the end of October 2024, North Korea first tested the "Mars Kanon 19". On September 1, this year, when Kim Jong-un went to the Institute of Chemical Materials and Comprehensive Research of the General Administration to inspect the high-power solid-fuel missile engine, the official report only first mentioned the plan for the next generation of missiles. Only a month later, the "Mars Kanon 20" completed the "first show".
It is worth noting that, unlike the "Hwasong-17", which uses liquid fuel propulsion, the "Hwasong-18" to "Hwasong-20" all use new solid fuel engines that are constantly being developed and upgraded. Reports in September this year revealed that the new engine used by the "Mars Cannon-20" has undergone eight ground ignition tests in the past two years, verifying its reliability.
Solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles have a shorter launch cycle and stronger survivability than liquid-fuel missiles. The major military scientific research achievements announced by North Korea since 2023, such as solid fuel rockets, new launch vehicles, and two different underwater launch/attack platforms, the "Kim Junyu Hero" and the "Tsunami", have all demonstrated North Korea's nuclear strike capabilities. More diverse, more covert, and more agile. External analysts believe that their goals are to ensure that the US military can maintain its nuclear counterattack capability after the so-called "one strike" and achieve "nuclear deterrence" in the true sense.
In addition to the high-end "first show" "Mars Kanon-20" intercontinental ballistic missile, in recent years, North Korea has also vigorously developed a new type of solid-fuel engine in the medium-range missile field, and tested new weapons, among which "represented" the "Mars-11A" new type of high-speed hypersonic missile, this show also appeared in the parade.
Also attracting attention from the outside world are the 600mm multiple rocket launchers,"the unique North Korean cutting-edge weapon in the world." The video shows that a team of small drone launch vehicles in an open state also appeared at the military parade site. Each vehicle can carry dozens of small drones.
However, most of the above-mentioned weapons have appeared at the "National Defense Development-2025" weapons and equipment exhibition that just opened this month, or have appeared in public reports earlier.
Many of the equipment appearing at this military parade has been incorporated into North Korea's new "National Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Management System." In May this year, Kim Jong-un inspected a joint exercise of the 600mm multiple rocket launcher and missile unit, aiming to familiarize various systems with this comprehensive strike system. At that time, Kim Jong-un also proposed to "further improve the combat credibility of tactical nuclear weapons systems and continuously compound the important task of expanding their application space."
However, it remains to be seen what the specific performance of North Korea's important strategic and tactical nuclear weapons unveiled at the military parade will be. Before 2020, North Korea's large-scale military parades were usually held during the day, but since 2020, they have been held late at night, usually starting or ending at 12 midnight. Before the start of this military parade, some Korean and American media speculated that North Korea might change the parade time due to the weather forecast of heavy rain on the evening of 10th, but the final military parade was still held at night.
Xi Jinping, who served as the secretary of Qingdao's clergy during the Moon's administration, said in an interview with the Korean media "Kingdao News" that he had proposed that he could hold a military parade late at night in 2018 when he exchanged with the then-Korean three-pylon orchestra leader, Hu Jintao.
Zhao Jin said that the lighting effect of the night parade can make the scene more animated, and can "show what you want to show up a bit brighter, darken the part that you do not want to show up a bit". also some analysts pointed out that after North Korea's night parade, it is difficult to watch carefully the newly disclosed weapons equipment on the parade.
"Active diplomacy"
In addition to the 10th evening parade, between October 9 and 10, North Korea also held a congress and art performance to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Labour Party.This is also the highest-specific domestic multilateral diplomatic activity carried out by North Korea since the launch of its new strategy of "active diplomacy" in 2023.
Historically, except for participating in relevant multilateral negotiations involving the nuclear issue on the peninsula, North Korea's multilateral diplomatic activities have not been very active. However, with the changes in the international landscape, in the past two years, North Korea's Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee and deputy prime minister-level officials have attended multilateral diplomacy and multilateral public diplomacy activities many times, and have used this to expand North Korea's exchanges with some "new friends" of global southern countries.
In September this year, Kim Jong Un came to China to attend the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War. This is his fifth visit to China since he became the top leader of the DPRK. It is also his second visit to China after six years, and it is also his first time to attend large-scale multilateral diplomatic activities. In the same month, North Korea resumed sending high-level representatives to attend and speak at the High-level Week of the UN General Assembly after eight years.
Some analysts pointed out that considering a series of changes in North Korea's diplomatic practices, now holding high-specific multilateral diplomatic activities at home is also "water-to-canal".
On the afternoon of October 9, local time, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Prime Minister of the State Council, Li Jing, met with the Central Committee of the Korean Labour Party in Pyongyang with the Secretary-General of the Korean Labour Party, Kim Jong Un, President of the State Committee, Li Jing said that last month, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of China, Kim Jong Un, visited Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Chinese people's war against Japan and the victory in the world's anti-fascist war, and General Secretary Xi Jinping met with you to further deepen China's relations with the DPRK and pointed out the direction, drawn a blueprint.
On the same day, Kim also held talks with the visiting Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party (CPC) Sulin. Last month, Kim Jong Un had a friendly exchange with the President of the State of Vietnam Liang Jian during his visit to China. This Sullin's visit to the DPRK was 18 years after the visit of Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party (CPC) Yong De Meng to the DPRK in 2007.
Kim Jong-unly recalled his visit to Vietnam in 2019 and his participation in the second meeting of the leaders of the DPRK and the United States with President Trump, saying that he had "left a good impression on the beautiful, developing people and country of Vietnam".The second "King Meeting" six years ago, although ended with discontent between the two sides, promoted further deepening the relations between the DPRK and the United States.
In 2023, after North Korea reopened to the outside world and put forward a new strategy of "positive diplomacy", the high-level interaction between the DPRK and Vietnam gradually resumed.In March 2024, the Vice-Chairman of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the DPRK Labour Party and the Ministry of International Affairs Kim Jong-Man visited Vietnam, where the Vietnamese side met with Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Foreign Minister Liu Wei-won, showing that the two sides chose to start a high-level visit from inter-party exchanges.
During this visit to the DPRK, Mr. Sulin also visited the home of Kim Jong-un and the "Ho Chi Minh Classroom" in the Korean kindergarten. With Mr. Sulin, the member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the director of the Central Inspection Committee, Mr. Nguyen Vi Yue, also visited the memorial of the founding party of the Korean Labour Party. On the eve of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Vi Yue said that the information and literature of this museum provided valuable reference to the Vietnamese Communist Party's "partial leadership" and the study and design of its own "Communist Museum of Vietnam".
In addition, Lao President Thongloun also visited the DPRK on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea and held talks with Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong-un's daughter has previously accompanied her father to several military parades and multilateral events, but she did not appear on the Central Television on the 80th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Korean Labour Party, but on the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Labour Party on 9 and 10 October, the Central Television broadcasted several images of Kim Jong-un's daughter inspecting military activities.
by FUOn 2025.10.20, the 1208th issue of "China News Weekly" magazine