Military parade in Seoul meant as show of force to deter Pyongyang
Seoul's biggest Armed Forces Day parade of military hardware in a decade intended to deter any thoughts of aggression by Pyongyang
South Korea displayed its longest-range missile capable of striking all of North Korea, and other sophisticated weapons, at a military parade yesterday, a display of force meant to show Pyongyang that any provocation would be met with strong retaliation.
It was South Korea's biggest Armed Forces Day ceremony in a decade, and the first since North Korea conducted its third atomic test and threatened nuclear war earlier this year.
About 11,000 troops, 190 weapons systems and other equipment and 120 aircraft were featured in the parade at a military airport just south of Seoul. Among them were GPS-guided, Hyunmu-3 cruise missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometres that South Korea developed in recent years. It was the first time the domestically built Hyunmu-3 was publicly shown, according to Seoul's Defence Ministry.
President Park Geun-hye said in a speech at the ceremony that South Korea must maintain its strong alliance with the US and establish missile defence and pre-emptive strike capabilities to let North Korea know "the nuclear weapons and missiles it is obsessed with are useless".
"We must build up a strong deterrence against North Korea until it puts down its nuclear weapons programme and make a right choice for its own people and peace on the Korean peninsula," she said as visiting US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel sat nearby.
The Korean peninsula is still officially in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 US troops are deployed in South Korea.
Other new weapons on show for the first time included the Hyunmu-2 ballistic missile, which has a range of 300 kilometres, and Israeli-made Spike missiles aimed at neutralising North Korean coastal artillery.