North Korea flexes military muscle for second time in a month with mass parade

North Korea held its second mass military parade in little more than a month on Monday, with leader Kim Jong-Un presiding over the display of goose-stepping troops, marching bands and light weaponry.

At the start of the ceremony, tens of thousands of troops gathered in tight formation in Pyongyang’s Kim Il-Sung square, with hundreds of thousands more civilians in the background carrying brightly coloured flowers in the pattern of a giant national flag.

Kim’s arrival on the viewing platform with senior party and military officials was greeted with the usual thunderous applause and cries of “Mansei” (“Long Live”).

It was the second such parade in little more than a month, but unlike July 27 - the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War - there was relatively little military hardware on display, with no drive-by of tank units or long-range missiles.

Some rocket launchers were included among the goose-stepping formations of men and women soldiers, but otherwise the event was dominated by wave after wave of patriotic floats, giant portraits of the leadership and flag- and flower-waving civilians.

Video: Goose-stepping troops, marching bands and light weaponry in North Korean parade