Global Courant
SEOUL — North Korea is planning a huge celebration this week to mark the anniversary of the Korean War, which will be attended by Chinese diplomats, the first known foreign visitors since the closure of the isolated country’s 2020 pandemic border due to Covid-19.
State media said Pyongyang will celebrate 70 years since the signing of the ceasefire, known as Victory Day in the north, in a “grand way that will go down in history”.
A large-scale military parade and other events are expected to mark the anniversary this week, with satellite images indicating soldiers and civilians have been training for months for the parade, Seoul-based specialty site NK News reported.
Leader Kim Jong Un’s largest nuclear missiles and other military capabilities are likely to roll through Kim Il Sung Square during the event, it added.
Seoul’s defense ministry said on Tuesday it had discovered more “people and equipment” in the capital Pyongyang, adding that South Korean and US intelligence agencies were closely monitoring the upcoming celebration in the North.
The official Korean Central News Agency reported, and Beijing confirmed, that a Chinese delegation led by Politburo member Li Hongzhong would travel north for the event — the first known visit by a foreign delegation since the start of the pandemic.
North Korea has been under a rigid self-imposed coronavirus blockade since early 2020 to protect itself from Covid-19, preventing even its own nationals from entering the country.
It did not resume any trade with China until 2022, and Beijing’s new envoy could take his position earlier in 2023.
Beijing said the delegation would travel to Pyongyang on Wednesday, suggesting they won’t have to undergo extensive quarantine ahead of Thursday’s anniversary event.
An armistice agreement ending hostilities in the Korean War was signed on July 27, 1953, but the two Koreas technically remain at war because the agreement has never been superseded by a peace treaty.
“North Korea is expected to try to reap the benefits of Beijing’s approval of its nuclear development by unveiling a new ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) when a high-level Chinese delegation attends the large-scale military parade,” Professor Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
“It appears that the intention is to show off the strengthening of solidarity between North Korea and China amid the global political disruption caused by the ongoing conflict between the US and China.”
He added that it could also be a sign that the border between the north and China could reopen in the not-too-distant future.
Beijing is North Korea’s main ally and economic benefactor, their relationship forged during the carnage of the Korean War in the 1950s.
“North Korea has always touted the anniversary of the Korean War as the day when North Korea and China fought and won together,” North Korean defector and researcher An Chan-il told AFP.
“As Pyongyang needs Beijing’s support as much as ever, the Chinese delegation is expected to experience the greatest hospitality ever.”
