North Korea shows off submarine-launched missile at parade, state media reports

The display is a show of strength days before Biden is inaugurated as US president, and comes at the end of the ruling Workers’ Party congress

State media reports that the rockets have ‘powerful striking capability’, with phrasing that implies they are capable of reaching at least as far as Japan

Reading Time:3 minutes

Missiles are displayed during a military parade to commemorate the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang on Thursday. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Published: 7:33am, 15 Jan 2021Updated: 11:42am, 15 Jan 2021

Nuclear-armed North Korea unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a military parade in Pyongyang, state media reported Friday, in a show of strength days before Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president.

The display came after the five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, where leader Kim Jong-un decried the United States as his country’s “foremost principal enemy”.

A grinning Kim oversaw the parade on Thursday evening, wearing a black leather coat and fur hat as he watched infantry troops, artillery, tanks, and a flypast with aircraft forming the number “8” to commemorate the party meeting.

“The world’s most powerful weapon, submarine-launch ballistic missile, entered the square one after another, powerfully demonstrating the might of the revolutionary armed forces,” the official KCNA news agency said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves during a ceremony for the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang on Thursday. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Pictures showed at least four of the SLBMs with black-and-white cones being driven past flag-waving crowds in Kim Il Sung Square, and Park Won-gon of Handong Global University in the South described them as “the North’s ultimate nuclear weapon”.