North Korea displayed its long-range missiles in a major military parade Saturday as a show of force against the United States and a display of absolute devotion to the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, underscoring the depth of the isolated nation’s nuclear ambitions and further raising the specter of a military conflict in northeast Asia.
At the parade — a celebration of the 105th birthday of Kim’s grandfather, the country’s founder-president, Kim Il Sung — Kim stood on a high rostrum in central Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square, wearing a black suit and white tie. He clapped, waved and saluted for more than two hours, as hundreds of thousands of North Koreans streamed by, howling, “Long live,” their faces contorted with emotion. Some openly shed tears.
