'Chairman Kim' presides over mass parade in Pyongyang
The huge civilian parade comes a day after a rubberstamp body of more than 3,400 delegates endorsed North Korean leader’s nuclear and economic policies, promoted his favoured officials and gave him a new title of party chairman
North Korea kicked off a massive parade in the centre of Pyongyang on Tuesday to celebrate a just-concluded ruling party congress that was seen as a formal coronation for supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
Kim presided over the event from a viewing platform overlooking the giant Kim Il-Sung square in the heart of the capital, which hundreds of thousands of participants turned into a sea of pink by waving floral bouquets over their heads as the young leader arrived.
Nuclear-armed North Korea regularly holds mass military parades to celebrate key dates and show off its latest military hardware, including long-range ballistic missiles that are still under development.
Tuesday’s events were a civilian affair, but the giant floats that moved under the viewing platform carried military themes, showing cardboard mock-ups of missiles and space-launch vehicles.
North Korea followed its last nuclear test in January with a satellite launch that was widely condemned as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The country’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong-nam, addressed the parade before it began, praising Kim Jong-un and congratulating him on his election the day before as chairman of the Workers’ party of Korea.