Nuclear-armed North Korea showcased its missile production muscle during a nighttime parade, state media reported on Thursday, displaying more intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) than ever before and hinting at a new solid-fuel weapon, APA reports citing Reuters.
North Korea held the widely anticipated nighttime military parade in Pyongyang on Wednesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its army, state news agency KCNA said.
Leader Kim Jong Un attended with his daughter, who is seen as playing a possible future leadership role in the hereditary dictatorship.
The ICBMs showed North Korea's "greatest" nuclear strike capability, KCNA said, adding that the parade also featured tactical nuclear units.
Imagery released by state media showed as many as 11 Hwasong-17s, North Korea's largest ICBMs, which are suspected to have the range to strike nearly anywhere in the world with a nuclear warhead.
"This is cumulatively more ICBM launchers than we've ever seen before at a North Korean parade," Ankit Panda of the United States–based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on Twitter.
If such ICBMs are equipped with multiple warheads, that number could be enough to saturate existing U.S. missile defence systems, he added.
The Hwasong-17 was first tested last year.
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