SEOUL: North Korea showed off its “most powerful” intercontinental ballistic missile at a military parade attended by top officials from Russia and China, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Saturday.

The event to mark 80 years under the ruling Workers’ Party came as leader Kim Jong Un has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow’s forces.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, attended the parade on Friday alongside Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vietnam’s leader To Lam — all seated near Kim, according to images released by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The spectacle featured some of the country’s most advanced weapons, including its new Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which state media described as its “most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system” whose “strike range knows no bounds.” The Hwasong-20 has not yet been demonstrated in flight tests, but the “Kim regime clearly seeks the capability to destroy cities around the world,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

The parade was about Kim “claiming domestic legitimacy and international recognition for a regime that overinvests in weapons at the expense of economic development,” he added.

Thousands of people in colourful traditional dress filled the streets of the North Korean capital for the late-night event, the images showed, waving national flags and cheering as weapons rumbled down the rain-soaked main streets.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2025