North Korea to celebrate 70th anniversary

Pyongyang : North Korea is preparing to mark the 70th anniversary of its foundation this weekend with a series of festivities, expected to include a military parade and the return of its renowned ‘Mass Games’ after a five-year absence. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the North is officially known, was proclaimed on September 9, 1948, three years after Moscow and Washington divided the peninsula between them in the closing days of the Second World War.

Such set-piece dates are a mainstay of the North’s political calendar, particularly when round numbers are involved, and it is pulling out all the stops this
time. The military parades – overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, the third of his family to rule the country - are crucial to Korea-watchers, who observe them closely for clues about its latest military advances.

Traditionally they see nuclear-armed Pyongyang show off its latest hardware, culminating earlier this year in intercontinental ballistic missiles rolling through Kim Il Sung Square.