Tens of thousands attend events in Pyongyang as the country marks the anniversary of the start of the Korean War in 1950.
North Korea has held mass demonstrations in Pyongyang condemning US “imperialism” and vowing a “war of revenge” as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.
About 120,000 youths and workers took part 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 showed a stadium full of people, many of them wearing white shirts. Some marched and punched the air with their right hands. Others carried placards that read: “The entire North American continent is within our firing range” and “The imperialist USA is the destroyer of peace.”
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to reunite the Korean peninsula under Pyongyang. The invasion sparked a three-year war – pitting Soviet and Chinese-backed northern troops against US-led United Nations forces – that killed an estimated 2 million people.
The anniversary of Sunday’s war, which ended with a truce rather than a peace treaty, follows a series of weapons tests by nuclear-armed North Korea, including an attempt to put the its first military spy satellite. That effort ended in failure on May 31, but Pyongyang has pledged to make a second launch attempt at an unspecified date.
People punch the air near a sign that reads: “Tens of millions pledge to defy death to defend country!” [Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo]
North Korea now had “the absolute strongest weapon to punish US imperialists” and the “avengers of this land burn with the indomitable will to avenge the enemy,” KCNA said.
This year’s series of weapons tests included Pyongyang’s first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile as leader Kim Jong Un moves forward with his plan to modernize the military and develop an arsenal of weapons every more powerful
Kim has 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 claimed the US was “making desperate efforts to ignite a nuclear war” and accused Washington of sending strategic assets to the region.
Talks on denuclearization have stalled since 2019, when a high-profile summit between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump collapsed due to sanctions.
