SEOUL, July 28, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Kim Jong Un oversaw a North Korean military parade, featuring a demonstration of new drones and showcasing Pyongyang's nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, to mark a key wartime anniversary, state media said Friday.

"Strategic unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and multi-purpose attack drones newly developed and produced... flew in demonstrations while circling in the sky over (Kim Il Sung) square, doubling the joy of the people celebrating," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The "audience's excitement and joy were heightened" when the nuclear-armed country's newest ICBM, the solid-fuel Hwasong-18 tested in April and July this year, was paraded through the square, KCNA said.

The festivities were attended by high-ranking Russian and Chinese delegations -- Kim's first-known foreign guests since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic -- marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, which ended open hostilities and is celebrated as Victory Day.

Kim "sent a warm combat greeting" to the parade, KCNA said, without mentioning whether he gave a speech.

Satellite imagery confirmed that North Korea staged a large-scale military parade for Thursday's anniversary.

KCNA said the parade would "be engraved in our history as a grand political military festival that demonstrated the unwavering will of the 10 million soldiers to create a new legend of the Kim Jong Un era."

The parade is indeed a key part of "promoting Kim Jong Un's ruling legitimacy and internal unity in this economically challenging time," Yangmo Ku, a political science professor at Norwich University, told AFP.

But this year, with the inclusion of high-level guests from Moscow and Beijing, Pyongyang is also "trying to send the US and its allies a signal that under the strengthened ties with Russia and China, North Korea is militarily ready to cope with strategic threats from its enemies", he said.

"All these acts mean the emergence of the new Cold War surrounding the Korean Peninsula," Ku added, urging Washington, Seoul and Tokyo to take steps to ease growing tensions.

- Foreign friends -
Beijing is North Korea's most important ally and economic benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War in the 1950s.

Russia, another historically, is one of a handful of nations with which Pyongyang maintains friendly relations, and experts said it was noteworthy that Moscow had sent Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to the anniversary celebrations.

The North Korean leader has been steadfast in his support for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, including, Washington says, supplying rockets and missiles -- a charge Pyongyang has denied.

The inclusion of foreign guests at this year's celebrations is a post-pandemic first and hints at new flexibility towards enforcing border controls.

North Korea has imposed a rigid Covid-19 blockade since early 2020, preventing even its own nationals from entering the country.

North Korea only resumed some trade with China last year and allowed new Beijing envoy Wang Yajun to take up his position this year. He is the first known senior diplomat to cross into North Korea since the border closure in January 2020.