N. Korea`s military parade worth $1.4 billion

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the foundation of North Korean Workers` Party, a military parade, consisting of 30,000 men of people`s army and a million crowd, will be held in Pyongyang`s Kim Il Sung Square on Saturday. South Korea`s intelligence sources predict that presented in the parade will be the submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) and the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), of which test-fire was done in May. In addition, they will have a 300-mm multiple rocket launcher, of which maximum range is the middle of South Korea, stealth high-speed infiltration ships, and others. The parade is interpreted as an armed protest intended to show off the splendor of the three-generation lineage of North Korean leadership, by bringing the massive army and weapons. North Korea is less likely to employ direct provocation such as shooting long-range rockets due to the stern warnings from the international community including the U.S. and China.

To be accurate, the number 70 is a distortion of the history. Oct. 10, 1945 was the day the communist party established its bureau in Pyongyang. The Soviet Union, according to the one-state, one-party principle, acknowledged that the communist party in Seoul was the central bureau. Kim Jong Un reportedly gave an order to make the parade the largest in North Korean history and will spend 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, enough to buy 9.5 million tons of corn, which can feed all North Korean people for 29 months. Considering that China, the second biggest economy, is bringing only about 12,000 soldiers and spending 21.5 billion yuan (3.38 billion dollars), we can see how ridiculous it is for North Korea, one of the poorest countries, to spend that kind of money.

North Korea`s state-run publication Rodong Sinmun introduced a paper Kim Jong Un published before the 70th anniversary, saying, "(North Korea) should make more state-of-the-art weapons and have independent control of the nuclear weapon." One wonders how long such an abnormal political system clinging to nuclear weapon-economy parallel strategy will last when the resentment keeps growing among the North Korean people against the repressive regime.

Beijing`s senior envoy Liu Yunshan arrived in Pyongyang on Friday. Liu, the Chinese Communist Party`s fifth-ranked leader, is the highest ranking official`s visit after Kim Jong Un`s succession. Hopefully Liu will persuade Kim to do away with his delusion for nuclear power, pursue reformation, and open the hermit regime`s door to the world, as China did. Marzuki Darusman, the U.N.`s Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, recently submitted a report to the U.N. General Assembly condemning summary executions, abductions, arbitrary detention, human trafficking, and other crimes. If North Korea keeps ignoring advice from the international community and insists on keeping its nuclear weapon and missiles, the world including China will see no future in the Kim Jong Un regime and have to seek for an "alternative."