The planned show of might comes after South Korea said the North has begun restoring its nuclear facilities and amid concerns over the health of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Il, who usually attends military parades.
"We know that the North has been preparing hard for tomorrow's event despite various internal difficulties," South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters without elaborating on the parade's size or details.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Monday that the parade in Pyongyang would be North Korea's largest-ever in terms of number of troops and military hardware displayed, quoting a government official it did not identify.
Good grief. I bet they dipped into their war reserves for this pageant. But what the heck, even their war reserves probably aren't enough to actually wage war against the American and South Korean militaries. Might as well fool the starving local rubes.
Even so, I imagine a lot of the parade will be short, thin soldiers marching down the road.
It's like a Stalinist cry for help.
UPDATE: Is Kim Jong-Il dead or dying? He was a no-show at the parade:
North Korea's state media was silent about his absence from the parade, a relatively low-key ceremony that unexpectedly lacked North Korea's trademark military display. Only a civilian militia was present.
And no flashy armor or missiles rolling along? Just militia? Did the military find it could not scrape together enough armor to roll without breaking down on camera? Are the war reserves too low? Or is Pyongyang hanging on to the scraps of supplies and working equipment they still have hoping to preserve some sort of offensive option?
Or is the military hoarding its weapons in case they have to keep a regime collapse from becoming a total national collapse when Kim is revealed to be dead?
