Tens of thousands attended events in Pyongyang as the country marked the anniversary of the start of the Korean War in 1950.
North Korea held a mass rally in Pyongyang condemning the “imperialism” of the United States and vowing a “war of revenge” as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War.
About 120,000 youths and workers participated in the rallies, which were held across the capital, state news agency KCNA reported on Monday. The secretaries of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea also attended.
The photos show a stadium full of people, most of them wearing white shirts. Others are marching and punching the air with their right hands. Others held placards that read: “The entire US mainland is in our shooting range” and “The imperialist US is the destroyer of peace”.
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to reunify the Korean Peninsula under Pyongyang. The invasion led to a three-year war – pitting US-backed northern Soviet and Chinese troops against US-led United Nations forces – that killed an estimated 2 million people. man.
Sunday’s anniversary of the war, which ended in a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty, follows several weapons tests by nuclear-armed North Korea, including an attempt to put the military’s first spy satellite into orbit. . That effort ended in failure on May 31 but Pyongyang has promised to make a second launch attempt at an unspecified date.
North Korea now has “the most powerful and perfect weapon to punish the US imperialists” and “the avengers of this land are burning with an unstoppable will to take revenge on the enemy”, KCNA said.
A series of weapons tests this year include Pyongyang’s first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile as leader Kim Jong Un continues his plan to modernize the military and build a more powerful arsenal of missiles. weapon.
Kim justified the build-up as necessary for North Korea’s self-defense, pointing to military exercises conducted by South Korea and the US.
In a separate foreign ministry report, North Korea admitted that the US was “making desperate efforts to provoke a nuclear war” and accused Washington of sending strategic assets to the region.
Talks on denuclearization have been stalled since 2019 when a high-profile summit between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump collapsed due to sanctions.
