NK leader calls for bolstering military strength in photo session with parade participants

A military parade is held at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, April 25, 2022, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's army, with the North's leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, in this photo released the following day by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again called for the bolstering of his country's military strength to "annihilate the enemy," as he held a photo session with participants in a military parade held earlier this week, state media reported Friday.

During the session held Wednesday, Kim praised the soldiers for "fully demonstrating" the "modernity, heroism and radical development" of the North's military forces and their "matchless military and technological superiority" during the event held Monday night, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"He underlined the need for all the service personnel of the entire army to fully cherish the soul and spirit of the DPRK and bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy and thus more firmly guarantee the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche with arms," the KCNA said in an English-language report, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Juche means self-reliance.

Other participants included the North's top military official, Pak Jong-chon, as well as Ri Pyong-chol, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau, who returned to public view at the parade after a 10-month disappearance.

The North held the nighttime parade Monday to celebrate the 90th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, during which it displayed key weapons, including the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.

At the parade, Kim also declared his resolve to further strengthen the regime's nuclear capabilities and warned that any forces seeking to violate the "fundamental interests" of the North would be met with its nuclear forces. (Yonhap)