Chinese diplomats to attend Korean War anniversary event in Pyongyang

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles late on Monday night.

Seoul:

North Korea is planning a “grand” Korean War armistice anniversary ceremony this week that will be attended by Chinese diplomats, the first known foreign visitors since Pyongyang’s 2020 pandemic border closures.

State media said Pyongyang would celebrate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice, known in the North as Victory Day, “in a grand manner that will go down in history.”

The official Korean Central News Agency reported, and Beijing confirmed, that a Chinese delegation led by Politburo member Li Hongzhong would travel to the North for the event – the first known visit by a foreign delegation since the start of the pandemic.

North Korea has been under a harsh self-imposed coronavirus blockade since early 2020 to protect itself from COVID-19, which has barred even its own citizens from entering the country.

It only resumed some trade with China last year and allowed Beijing’s new envoy to take up his post earlier this year.

Beijing said the delegation would travel to Pyongyang on Wednesday, suggesting they would not be required to undergo extensive quarantine ahead of Thursday’s anniversary event.

An armistice agreement ending Korean War hostilities was signed on July 27, 1953, but the two Koreas remained technically at war because the agreement was never replaced by a peace treaty.

North Korea is expected to hold a large-scale military parade and other events to mark the anniversary this week, with satellite images indicating that troops and civilians have been training for the parade for months, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported.

It said leader Kim Jong Un’s largest nuclear-capable missiles and other military capabilities are likely to pass through Kim Il Sung Square during the event.

“It is expected that North Korea will try to take advantage of Beijing’s neglect of its nuclear development by unveiling a new ICBM when a high-level Chinese delegation attends its massive military parade,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

“It appears that the intention is to demonstrate the strengthening of solidarity between North Korea and China amid the global political disruption caused by the ongoing US-China conflict.”

He said it could also be a sign that the border between the North and China could be reopened in the near future.

– More missiles –

Seoul said North Korea fired two ballistic missiles late Monday, the latest in a series of weapons tests conducted by Pyongyang in recent weeks, which came amid increased defense cooperation by Seoul and Washington.

Last week, South Korea hosted a visit by a US nuclear-capable submarine, the first such deployment since 1981.

And in a move that is likely to further provoke the North, a second US submarine, the nuclear-powered USS Annapolis, arrived at a South Korean naval base on Monday.

Relations between the two Koreas are currently at one of their lowest historical points, as diplomacy between Pyongyang and Seoul stalled and Kim called for the acceleration of weapons development, including tactical nuclear weapons.

In efforts to strengthen deterrence, Seoul and Washington have held joint military exercises involving advanced stealth jets and US strategic assets.

Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula recently after the disappearance of a US soldier, Travis King, who was on a tour of the demilitarized zone last week, when he crossed the border and fled into North Korea.

The United Nations Command, the US-led multinational force overseeing the Korean ceasefire, said on Monday it has begun discussions with Pyongyang over the missing US soldier.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV Staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)