North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a military parade Thursday night in Pyongyang featuring a display of the country's latest drone technology, with Russian and Chinese delegations attending the event held to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, state-run media said.
Kim did not make a speech at the parade, which included flyovers of the new spy and attack drones and displays of Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, the official Korean Central News Agency said Friday.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Li Hongzhong, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Political Bureau, were among those attending the parade held at Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square, named after the nation's founder and the current leader's grandfather.
North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam delivered a speech at the event, KCNA said.
Pyongyang claims the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in victory over U.S.-led allied forces. The delegations from Russia and China, which like North Korea are currently embroiled in tensions with the United States, are the first known foreign groups to be invited to North Korea since the country's 2020 COVID-19 border closure.
In the conflict, which began on June 25, 1950, with a North Korean invasion aimed at unification under the Communist regime, U.N. forces led by the United States fought alongside South Korea against the North which was supported by China and the Soviet Union.
