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North set to hold military parade to mark 80th anniversary of Workers' Party founding

Published: 05 Oct. 2025, 18:17 Updated: 05 Oct. 2025, 18:32

The Hwasong-17 Intercontinental ballistic missile is displayed during a military parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Feb. 8, 2023, marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army. [KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY]

North Korea is expected to stage a large-scale military parade on Friday to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party.

If held as planned, it will be the 42nd parade to mark the party's establishment in 1945.

Founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong-il each held 13 such events, while current leader Kim Jong-un is set to preside over his 16th.

Pyongyang has long used military parades as a political tool for various purposes.

The country's first parade was held in 1948 in the square in front of Pyongyang Station to commemorate the founding of the army with the participation of some 20,000 infantry and artillery soldiers, along with tanks and other equipment. During Kim Il Sung's rule, parades were mostly organized to celebrate Liberation Day on Aug. 15.

After the Korean War (1950-1953), the venue was moved from the station square to Kim Il Sung Square, which was completed in August 1954 as part of the leader's postwar capital reconstruction plan.

Soidiers carry portraits of anti-Japanese partisans and figures credited with advancing the military during a nighttime parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Feb. 8, 2023, marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army. [RODONG SINMUN]

Unlike Kim Il Sung, who showed little personal interest in such events, Kim Jong-il turned parades into spectacles of state propaganda that reflected his own style. During his rule, anti-Japanese partisans and Korean War veterans were placed at the front of parade formations — a move intended to highlight the historical roots and revolutionary origins of the Korean People's Army.

When Kim Jong-il died unexpectedly on Dec. 18, 2011, Kim Jong-un, who inherited the leadership, used the April 15 parade marking Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday the following year as the stage for his first public speech.

He used the event to evoke nostalgia for his grandfather and bolster his legitimacy while distinguishing himself from his reclusive father.

The nuclear-capable Haeil torpedo makes its first appearance during a military parade in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square on July 27, 2023, commemorating North Korea’s Victory Day. [KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY]

Military parades today remain North Korea's primary way to showcase its weapons capabilities, allowing the regime to display the military's morale, strength and new technologies before domestic and international audiences.

At previous parades, several key weapons were unveiled for the first time, including the Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Pukguksong-5S submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the NK-23 short-range tactical ballistic missile and a nuclear-capable torpedo known as the Haeil.

Some analysts suggest the parades also serve an economic purpose, aimed at promoting North Korea's weapons to foreign buyers. In an August 2021 commentary for The Diplomat, Jason Bartlett, a research assistant for the Energy, Economics and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, wrote that the broadcasts of North Korean parades “essentially act as a weapons catalog for America's adversaries,” offering potential customers a glimpse of the regime's latest systems.

Drones are showcased during a military parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on July 27, 2023, marking the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s Victory Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement. [RODONG SINMUN]

Kim Jong-un has continued to use parades as a way to send political messages at home and abroad. Weapons first revealed at these events have often heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The upcoming parade is drawing even more attention following his recent appearance alongside Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin atop Tiananmen Gate during the Sept. 3 ceremony in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO [[email protected]]