In a military parade, North Korea displays the largest number of nuclear missiles ever.
The military parade marks the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean army.
247 - North Korea, a nuclear-armed country, displayed its missile production strength during a nighttime parade (Pyongyang time) on Wednesday (8), state media reported, showing more intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) than ever before and demonstrating that it may have a new solid-fuel weapon.
North Korea held its long-awaited nighttime military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its army, the state news agency KCNA reported.
Leader Kim Jong Un attended.
The ICBMs demonstrated North Korea's "greatest" nuclear strike capability, KCNA said, adding that the parade also featured tactical nuclear units.
Images released by state media showed up to 11 Hwasong-17s, North Korea's largest ICBMs, which reportedly have the range to strike almost anywhere in the world with a nuclear warhead, Reuters reports.
"That's cumulatively more ICBM launchers than we've ever seen before at a North Korean parade," tweeted Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
If these ICBMs are equipped with multiple warheads, that number could be enough to overwhelm existing US missile defense systems, he added.
The Hwasong-17 was first tested last year.
New missiles
The country moved forward with its ballistic missile program, launching larger and more advanced missiles, despite resolutions and sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.
"This time, Kim Jong Un let North Korea's tactical and long-range missile forces speak for themselves," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "The message Pyongyang wants to send internationally, demonstrating its ability to deter and coerce, will likely come in the form of solid-fuel missile tests and the detonation of a miniaturized nuclear device."
The Hwasong-17s were followed by what some analysts said could be a prototype or mock-up of a new solid-fuel ICBM in canister launchers.
The ICBMs in cans looked different from those shown in a 2017 parade, Panda said.
Most of the country's largest ballistic missiles use liquid fuel, which requires them to be loaded with propellant at the launch site – a time-consuming process.
The development of a solid-fuel ICBM has long been seen as a key objective for the country, as it could make its nuclear missiles more difficult to locate and destroy during a conflict.
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