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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / North Korea Has A Parade

North Korea Has A Parade

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Another live event starts at around 7:30 Eastern time. In honor of (or to upstage) the start of the Winter Olympics in South Korea, North Korea will parade some of its military might. Wonks love this, because North Korea frequently uses their military parades to show off new missiles. Or, with screen caps and close examination, the wonks can learn details of existing missiles.

We don’t know what tonight’s (Friday’s in North Korea) parade will bring. If there’s a live feed, I’ll update this post with it.

A number of experts on North Korean missiles usually tweet their comments on the parades. Here’s a good list to start:

@nktpnd

@annafifield

@wslafoy

@mhanham

@ArmsControlWonk

@atomic_pickles

@ISNJH

@KelseyDav

@DaveSchmerler

@grace_c_liu

Don’t forget the hashtag.

I’m not a missile expert, but I occasionally add something to the discussion. I’ll post tweets with trenchant comments or interesting pictures in the comments.

Here’s a photo from an earlier parade. I’m sure the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be watching to help plan the next big military parade in Washington.

 

Update: I am told that the parade will be streamed on this channel or on YouTube, although there doesn’t seem to be a way to embed it. Livestream from North Korea breaks up regularly.  So don’t blame me.

If Adam shows up and can figure out how to embed the video, please feel free to edit this post.

 

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    “Your button may be bigger than mine, but the size of my parade grounds is much yuuuger than yours!”

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    I hear that Elon Musk was invited to do a fly by riding Falcon Heavy….

    Is it time for the Olympics already? I have not been keeping up with regular tv.

  13. 13.

    Mike in NC

    Back in the 50s and 60s, during their May Day parades the Soviets would fly a formation of new aircraft over and over in circles to exaggerate the numbers they had.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    Opening ceremony Friday

    I just have not been paying attention. Also, I have been anticipating the upcoming Black Panther movie and trying to avoid online Games of Throne spoilers. Priorities.

    And I have to work late on Friday. I will try to DVR it and watch some highlights.

  25. 25.

    Cheryl Rofer

    One comment from a Korean speaker that this is an hour-long documentary. If that’s the case (a lot of joking goes on during these things), then the parade should start in another half-hour. The North Koreans like to troll the folks who look obsessively at the photos they release. They blur the photos and photoshop them. So today they seem to be offering up an hour history lesson, DPRK-style.

  28. 28.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    The time I had it it had the taste & consistency of pork.
    It came with a lecture on how the people who had told them eating dogs was immoral also forced the at gunpoint to resume the opium trade which was killing people in their country.

  29. 29.

    Jay S

    Could we just build some special effects super weapons and a bunch of movie extras to parade for Trump? I would probably be cheaper and more effective than the real thing. Plus the more mysterious the fake weapons the more puzzled the enemy analysts will be.

  34. 34.

    dr. bloor

    In honor of (or to upstage) the start of the Winter Olympics in South Korea, North Korea will parade some of its military might.

    At least they didn’t take down a commercial airliner this time around.

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    I’m trying to think of the Top Ten, most out-in-the-open, why-isn’t-this-a-national-scandal things about the Trumpov admin, and this request for a DPRK-style parade isn’t even close. (No offense to Cheryl or any of the posters…I was just trying to think of it all, this past Year of Wonder we’ve been going through)

    In no particular order…
    10) Trumpov personally profiting every time he visits one of his own businesses (like his golf courses – with cart rentals, etc)
    9) The fact that he golfs every 4th day or so, and doesn’t bother to hit the office on the other days until 11am after several hours of “executive time”
    8) The fact that he jacked up golf club memberships at Mar-a-Lago “the winter white house” and sells Trumpov-endorsed merchandise, sometimes through ‘official’ channels
    7) The fact that he a) paid off a b) porn star to c) keep quiet about their affairs d) that he had shortly after the birth of his fifth kid with his third wife e) during the fucking campaign and f) was apparently one of ‘hundreds’ of women who were also paid off, g) possibly with campaign/legal defense funds
    6) Firing the FBI Director for not quashing an investigation into his/his campaign’s collusion with a hostile foreign power, and admitting it on national TV
    5) Attempting to intimidate Comey, McCabe, others – hell, the entire FBI – via the national media
    4) lauding the “very fine people” in Charlottesville
    3) allowing people like Jared Kushner and Robert Porter to handle classified materials on a daily basis when they don’t have the clearance
    2) giving away classified intelligence…to representatives of a hostile foreign power…IN. THE. OVAL. OFFICE.
    1) Letting Puerto Rico suffer without power and water, and berating its citizens in their darkest hours

    Several of the above are illegal and could/should/will? lead to charges. Several are part of the power of the presidency, but should come at a huge cost (and most certainly would never be tolerated if parties were reversed). And the last few are just utter dereliction of duty, with no real remedy save not re-electing this clown.

    Let’s have that ‘truth and reconciliation’ committee a.s.a.p. and then please FSM let’s try to put what we can in place so that this never happens again. Tumbrels as a last resort but not taking that off the table.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @mike in dc:
    Definitely a Gundam. Some of the Gundam models (e.g. RGM-79 GM) were actually designed for mass production to serve as part of an organized military. That’s a much better choice than a one-off like most mecha in anime.

  49. 49.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Jeffro: Dan Murphy has been listing stuff all day.

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    said Putin wasn’t responsible for the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko with Polonium-210 because he hadn’t been convicted of the killing in a court of law.

    /headdesk

  53. 53.

    Yutsano

    @Cheryl Rofer: He stopped 6 minutes ago. I’m guessing it’s mental health break/whisky time.

    @Roger Moore: Yeah but we would (probably) have to assemble the thing. This stupid parade is worth doing on the cheap.

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: He must have a bit more time than me…the thought is the same. Would love to have the whole country arguing about which of his thousand outrages deserve a ‘top ten’ rating. It’s appalling.

  56. 56.

    chris

    @Jeffro: Good list but short. Here’s a really big one. Week 64 now and it goes all the way back to the beginning of the long national horror show.

    (Yes, it’s Amy Siskind. I know, right? But this is a valuable service.)

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    I’m seeing stories that Netanyahu is about to get charged with bribery, and he’s warning his fanboys in advance?

    “Fake News!”

    “Rigged!”

    Can we just buy these clowns an island, ship them there, and be done with this? The world has much better things to do.

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    @Jeffro:

    I’m trying to think of the Top Ten, most out-in-the-open, why-isn’t-this-a-national-scandal things about the Trumpov admin

    Unfortunately, most of these, while dishonest, stupid, self-aggrandizing and generally rotten, aren’t prosecutable.
    Same thing happened during Watergate: all kinds of things were discovered (enemies list, potentially using the IRS for political ends) which were stripped from, the final impeachment indictment so as not to muddy the waters.

  69. 69.

    efgoldman

    @Jeffro:

    Can we just buy these clowns an island, ship them there, and be done with this?

    From what I understand about Israeli/Likud politics, whoever replaces him, unless there are new elections or the coalition breaks down, will be every bit the asshole

  71. 71.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sometimes it is the only way to puncture the ‘bubble’ when talking to Republicans or both-siders…or just to keep one’s own self suitably outraged…by picturing how of-the-hook the RWNJs would be at any single one of these things.

  72. 72.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Baud: Like any other dictatorship, the Kim family makes the parades run on time. This is really an extraordinary delay, unless they are trolling their wonky audience. But some of that audience have better connections into North Korea sometimes, so they will tell us if indeed the parade is happening while we are being fed propaganda and joking among ourselves. Haven’t heard anything from them.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    It’s acting funky for me too when I try to embed it. I’ve got Alain looking into it. Please stand by.

  77. 77.

    Jay S

    @Cheryl Rofer: We can not afford to have a phony missile gap! The fake Trump parade must go on! ETA bigger and better fake missiles, fantasy weapons, invisible planes.

  78. 78.

    Cheryl Rofer

    In past parades, analysts have wondered if the missiles are real or are mockups. Close examination of news photos has indicated that some seem to be mockups. News reporters are highly restricted at this parade.

  79. 79.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    so this should be in the trump’s hair thread down below but I’m a fucking rebel, so…

    Howard Gewirtz @ howard_gewirtz
    The picture is what happens after a badly done hair transplant. There’s a scar left where the donor hair came from that produces that bald spot. VERY common and ALWAYS the result of poor transplantation.
    Briar @ nethersky
    It is a microcylinder weave. An elaborate process costing $60k and then it must be reworked when the hair grows out to tighten it. The orange tone of his hair is the human donor hair which is typically sourced from Asia which does not bleach well. If you look closely, he is gray.

  84. 84.

    jl

    Oh geez. I’m sure another commenter mentioned this but no time to go through all 80 something. It’s too damn close to Trump planning his own big military parade. He’ll want one bigger and better and longer. From what I hear about soldiers’ enthusiasm for humongous and lengthy parade ground exercises like this, might cause some mutinies.

    Edit: can we make a plea to NK to call it off or downsize it? And if Trump gets too ticked off, I don’t want WWIII over parade drill envy.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gin & Tonic: and more than trump ever wanted known, I’m sure. That’s why this makes me chuckle. I can’t imagine he isn’t aware of the word buzzing around the twitterverse

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    Alain just got back to me and says:

    Something is way fucked up and I’m scared of touching a thing.

    I’m not sure what’s going on with that link. I tried the url as well and then tried iframe and when I do that, it shows me the bj site front page which makes no sense.

    Sorry!

  88. 88.

    Cheryl Rofer

    From someone in Pyongyang. Looks like another hour. I’m gonna do something else, will return later. Maybe I’ll put up another thread to continue the essential discussion of Trump’s botched hair transplant.

  92. 92.

    jl

    Saw a clip via Josh Marshall’s twitter that his central casting generals are not overly enthusiastic about the biggest most terrific classiest best ever military parade just for Trump and his buddies. Trump’s central casting generals went low energy on him.

    Not surprising though. The clip said that the military does rather more prosaic versions of these big parades periodically anyway around he country on military facilities. Maybe they can fly Trump around to a few of them, and tell him the thing is so damn big that they can’t fit it into DC?

  97. 97.

    hueyplong

    Imagining the people who sold Trump that hair for $60,000. They’re laughing their asses off, saying, “What’s he gonna do, sue us? Imagine the discovery process, the things Trump would have to admit/allege in his complaint,” etc., etc.

    It’s kind of like how he treats his immigrant workers, except that we get a daily, visual reminder.

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