North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the Russian delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu oversaw a military parade on Thursday night in Pyongyang.
The parade was timed to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, South Korean news agency reported Friday, citing the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The parade featured North Korea’s Hwasong-17 and solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as overflights of unmanned aerial vehicles, the report said. A Chinese senior delegation also attended the military parade.
The North’s news agency also reported that Sergei Shoigu and Kim Jong Un have discussed in Pyongyang the development of tactical and strategic defense cooperation between the countries.
During the meeting, the North Korean leader referred to Pyongyang’s “judgment and principled stand on the rapidly changing international security environment and the military and political situation of the Korean peninsula” and exchanged views with Shoigu, the report said.
The officials “discussed some issues arising in further developing the strategic and tactical collaboration and cooperation between the two countries in the field of defence and security,” the KCNA reported.
Later Defense Minister Shoigu and the Russian delegation has departed from Pyongyang.
North Korean National Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam, Korean People’s Army (KPA) General Political Bureau Director Jong Kyong Thaek, KPA General Staff Chief Pak Su Il and other senior commanding officers, as well as Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister Im Chon Il and Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexandr Matsegora, attended the farewell ceremony for the delegation.
Shoigu and Kang reviewed the KPA guards of honor while the national anthems of Russia and North Korea were playing. After that, the plane carrying “the goodwill mission of Russia” took off in Pyongyang.
