(Bloomberg) -- North Korea is showing signs of holding a huge military parade around midnight Sunday where it will showcase its latest strategic weapons and celebrate the anniversary of its army, Yonhap News reported.
The parade at Kim Il Sung Square may involve 20,000 troops, while rehearsals had more than 250 pieces of military equipment on display, the report said, citing unidentified government sources. They include a hypersonic Hwasong-8 missile, a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile and a submarine-launched ballistic missile, according to Yonhap.
Kim could give a speech during the parade, the report said. In recent years, North Korea has held military parades at night and then edited footage for airing several hours later on state TV.
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The country commemorates the 90th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean People's Revolutionary Army on April 25. It had previously used key anniversaries to show off its military might, parade new weapons through the streets of Pyongyang and hold rallies demonstrating support for its leader.
A military parade would be North Korea's first in about seven months, when it held a version in September that didn't feature major systems such as ballistic missiles. In October 2020, Kim Jong Un put on a big display of new weaponry at a parade to mark the 75th anniversary of its ruling party. That event included a display of a new missile designed to strike the U.S. that was described by experts as the world's largest road-worthy ICBM.
That ICBM known as the Hwasong-17 appears to have blown up shortly after launch in a failed test last month.
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