SEOUL, 26 Jun: Tens of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-U.S. rallies over the weekend, pledging \u201cmerciless\u201d revenge against \u201cU.S. imperialists,\u201d as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War, state media said Monday.
\nMore than 120,000 people participated in Sunday\u2019s mass rallies in the nation\u2019s capital, North Korea\u2019s official Korean Central News Agency said.
\nWhile the 1950-53 conflict was triggered by a North Korean surprise attack, the demonstrators mobilized in Pyongyang promoted their government\u2019s version of events and accused the United States of provoking the war and leaving Koreans with \u201cwounds … that can never be healed.\u201d
\nMeanwhile in South Korea, a North Korean defector-turned-activist said he flew balloons carrying some 200,000 anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and COVID-19 medical supplies across the border Sunday night, continuing his yearslong campaigns that have often triggered angry responses from the North.
\nPhotos sent by Park Sang-hak showed a placard with a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a message that highlighted how his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, was responsible for starting the Korean War. The North has not commented on Park\u2019s latest ballooning stint.
\nNorth Korea is extremely sensitive about any outside attempt to undermine Kim\u2019s leadership and weaken his absolute control over the country\u2019s 26 million people.
\nAt the rallies Sunday, North Koreans also expressed pride in Kim\u2019s expanding nuclear weapons and missile programs, insisting their country now has the \u201cstrongest absolute weapon to punish the U.S. imperialists and the war deterrence for self-defense which no enemy dare provoke.\u201d
\nPhotos published by the North\u2019s Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a stadium packed with likely tens of thousands of people in COVID-19 masks, raising their fists in the air and holding signs that read: \u201cLet\u2019s eradicate U.S. imperialist invaders\u201d and \u201cThe entire U.S. mainland is within our striking range.\u201d
\nThe rallies came amid heightened tensions in the region, as the pace of North Korean weapons demonstrations and the United States\u2019 joint military exercises with South Korea have both intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.
\nIn their latest telephone discussion over North Korea, the U.S. and South Korean nuclear envoys accused Pyongyang of distorting history by repeating old claims that the United States caused the Korean War, South Korea\u2019s Foreign Ministry said.
\nThe South Korean official, Kim Gunn, and President Joe Biden\u2019s special representative for North Korea, Sung Kim, also noted how Pyongyang in likewise manner was blaming Washington and its Asian allies for recent tensions triggered by its intensified weapons tests and verbal threats of nuclear conflict. They vowed tighter diplomatic and security cooperation between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo to cope with the threat, the South Korean ministry said.
\nSince the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles of various ranges as Kim attempts to display a dual ability to conduct nuclear strikes on both the U.S. mainland and South Korea. The North is also speeding up efforts to launch its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit, following a failed first attempt in May.
\nThere are signs that North Korea is planning a huge military parade in Pyongyang where it would likely showcase its new military hardware.
\nRecent commercial satellite images have shown troop and vehicle movements and the building of structures suggestive of preparations for a parade, likely for the July 27 anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement.
\nLee Sung Joon, a spokesperson for South Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South\u2019s military was closely analyzing the North\u2019s presumed parade preparations but did not provide specific details.
\nAt a military parade in February, Kim and his daughter took center stage and his military rolled out what appeared to be a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, which was likely the same system the country flight-tested for the first time in April. If perfected, the weapon would give Kim a more mobile and harder-to-detect weapon to target the continental United States. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, 26 Jun: Tens of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-U.S. rallies over the weekend, pledging \u201cmerciless\u201d revenge against \u201cU.S. imperialists,\u201d as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War, state media said Monday. More than 120,000 people participated in Sunday\u2019s mass rallies in the nation\u2019s capital, North Korea\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-219225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}