North Korea appears to have confirmed a July 27 war holiday as the date of the country’s next military parade, troop formations captured in satellite imagery show, as soldiers continue to carry out large-scale marching practices in preparation for the event.

The military parade will be Pyongyang’s second in six months and seventh in under five years, and could feature the display of new nuclear weapons and other capabilities. 

NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs satellite imagery taken on Sunday shows soldiers making formations in the shapes of the word “Victory” (전승) and number “70” — likely referencing the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War on July 27 — at the Mirim military parade training grounds in southeastern Pyongyang.

North Korea officially calls the anniversary “Victory Day” or the “day of victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.” 

Sunday’s image of Mirim shows thousands of soldiers training for the parade by marching in block and line formations at the compound’s replica of downtown Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square, as well as hundreds of likely troop-carrying trucks parked in adjacent lots.

The imagery also shows more new construction inside a highly secure vehicle storage facility at Mirim between June 3 and 11. A temporary structure in the same spot previously appeared to be an extra garage for housing more large missile launchers in the lead-up to the April 2022 parade.

NK Pro was first to report on the apparent start to large-scale training at Mirim in mid-May for the upcoming parade, and marching practices have been ongoing in the weeks since.

The parade will come at around the halfway point of leader Kim Jong Un’s five-year weapons development plan, which called for manufacturing spy and combat drones and various new nuclear missiles. 

This comparison shows new construction in the first week of June inside the secure vehicle compound at Mirim, where heavy weapons vehicles are expected to practice driving formations in the coming weeks (please refresh page if images do not load) | Images: Planet Labs; edited by NK Pro

The Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), first tested in April, could make another appearance at the parade as well, possibly in greater numbers than before. Kim projected an ability to mass-produce ICBMs and their mobile launch vehicles by rolling out more of them in one place than ever before at the last parade in February.

Meanwhile, South Korea will hold its own military parade in September, the country’s first in downtown Seoul in 10 years.

Edited by Arius Derr