A much-anticipated parade event appears to have finally begun in Pyongyang, an informed source told NK News, with military aircraft flying in formation above Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung square just after seven o’clock on Thursday evening.

The aircraft appeared to be illuminated with LEDs and could be seen releasing fireworks mid-flight, a celebratory maneuver last seen in Pyongyang during a military parade held in Oct. 2020. A second source confirmed hearing the aircraft.

The development followed a sighting of thousands of well-dressed citizens walking through the city earlier in the day, headed towards Kim Il Sung square, according to a source – the traditional location of North Korean military parades.

With the DPRK’s Eighth Party Congress having wrapped up with initial celebratory events on Wednesday, it appears the military and civilian movements spotted on Thursday evening mean that the much anticipated military parade had finally kicked off.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, on Wednesday morning made a vague allusion to the event, slamming the South Korean military for saying that it was “closely monitoring” a potential military parade or practice in North Korea.

“We are only holding a military parade … not military exercises targeting anyone nor launching anything,” she complained, criticizing South Korea for “craning their neck” to watch the North.

Planet Labs satellite imagery showed as of early Thursday that hundreds of trucks that are typically used to transport soldiers to parade grounds had left their parking spots at the Mirim training complex, where they had been mostly stationary since arriving there in late December — indicating they may have been preparing to move to Kim Il Sung Square.

The development follows armored vehicles and troops spotted moving towards Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung square on Sunday night, for what now appears to have been a parade training session.

The DPRK’s last military parade took place in Oct. 2020 to commemorate the 75th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). The event unveiled an unprecedented scale of new military equipment in a never-before-seen nighttime parade format.

Thursday evening’s parade would mark one of the shortest intervals between two consecutive parades in North Korean history.

Colin Zwirko and Jeongmin Kim contributed to this report