South Korea holds military parade

The parade, held to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, comes amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with South Korea closely following the United States and Japan in the face of threats from North Korea's rapidly accelerating weapons programs.

The event kicked off in the morning after ceremonies and performances at Seoul Air Base, where President Yoon Suk Yeol delivered a speech warning Pyongyang against using nuclear weapons.

“If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, the regime will be destroyed by an overwhelming response from the (Seoul-Washington) coalition,” he said in the rain.

Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images.

Also on Tuesday, North Korea's UN Ambassador Kim Song said Pyongyang was "forced to accelerate and strengthen (its) self-defense measures," and said the Korean peninsula was "increasingly approaching the brink of nuclear war."

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Mr. Kim accused the US of spreading its influence around the world , especially on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea's first military parade since 2013 was held in the afternoon, with soldiers and military equipment marching through downtown Seoul, passing by City Hall and Gwanghwamun Square. Seoul's streets were filled with spectators, many wearing raincoats or holding umbrellas in the rain.

Photo: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters.

Thousands of South Korean soldiers and more than 300 U.S. troops marched in the event, the Defense Ministry said. Other performances included military bands, flag parades and mascots from various military units.

A variety of domestically developed military hardware was showcased, including drones, tanks and armored personnel carriers. Soldiers in the transport vehicles waved to onlookers, many of which were emblazoned with the South Korean flag.

While the parade is intended to “send a message to the foreign community,” including partners like the United States and regional powers like North Korea and China, the event is “essentially domestic,” said Peter Layton, a fellow at Griffith University’s Griffith Asia Institute.

Photo: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters.

The parade, along with Mr. Yoon’s appearance, “helps demonstrate to South Koreans that the country has become a major international power, or as the president described it, a pivotal international power,” he said. It also reinforces public awareness of South Korea’s defense industry, which is “achieving remarkable export success” while other economic sectors are stagnant.

Mr. Yoon affirmed the goal of making South Korea one of the world's top four arms exporters, alongside the United States, Russia, and France. Although there are still many more places to go to achieve this goal, the South Korean defense industry has grown significantly, and in 2021, the defense export balance reached $7 billion.

Mr Layton also said the parade reinforced the role of South Korea's long-standing alliance with the United States - two countries that have increasingly close ties, along with Japan, as North Korea continues to step up weapons testing.

Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images.

International intelligence over the past year has also shown that Pyongyang may be preparing to continue nuclear testing, and satellite images show a lot of activity taking place at underground nuclear testing facilities in North Korea.

In April 2023, Mr. Yoon and US President Joe Biden announced a major new agreement to prevent North Korean aggression, including a US commitment to deploy nuclear submarines to South Korea for the first time since the 1980s.

Mr. Yoon, Mr. Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also held a historic summit in August, announcing new military exercises and a hotline for crisis communication. It was the first time Mr. Biden had hosted a foreign leader at Camp David in Maryland, a historic site that has seen many diplomatic talks by previous presidents.

Nguyen Quang Minh (CNN)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/han-quoc-to-chuc-dieu-hanh-quan-su-a628423.html