On Monday, North Korea held large-scale events to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the 'Fatherland Liberation War Victory'. North Korean state media mentioned that a video commemorating the participation of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and Chinese songs such as the 'March of the Chinese People's Volunteers' resonated strongly with the audience.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, a 'marching ceremony of symbolic units from the period of the Fatherland Liberation War' was held that day in the capital Pyongyang, attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
During the event, the Honor Guard symbolic formation entered first, followed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs symbolic formation, a mixed mechanized carriage formation, and a motorcycle formation. Officers and soldiers wore wartime military uniforms, and formations from the North Korean Army, Navy, and Air Force also participated in the ceremony.
In his speech, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam stated that North Korea will never turn a blind eye to forces that constantly threaten North Korea's sovereignty and security, and will defend North Korea's constitution, sovereignty, and development interests and safeguard regional peace and security through more responsible and explicit war deterrence.
In addition, Kim Jong Un also attended a commemorative performance the same day. Photos released by KCNA showed him watching the performance together with his wife Ri Sol Ju and daughter Kim Ju Ae.
According to reports, leaders of the Workers' Party of Korea, government, and military agencies sat on the rostrum with war veterans, and Chinese and Russian diplomatic envoys to North Korea were also invited to attend.
Citing analysis, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency pointed out that North Korea is highly publicizing the contributions of the war generation in an attempt to inspire pride and loyalty among young people and strengthen ideological unity between the older and younger generation.
KCNA stated that the video commemorating the participation of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and Chinese songs such as the 'March of the Chinese People's Volunteers' resonated strongly with the audience. Yonhap News analysis stated this highlighted that China-North Korea relations have become increasingly close recently.
Since last year, high-level interactions between China and North Korea have clearly increased. Last September, Kim Jong Un visited China to attend anti-Japanese war commemorations and held talks with Xi Jinping; the following month, Li Qiang led a delegation to visit Pyongyang. Last month, Xi Jinping visited North Korea again for the first time in seven years and, with Kim Jong Un, conducted top-level planning for a new era in China-North Korea relations, proposing to expand cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, science and technology, healthcare, border transportation, and personnel exchanges.