The Marmot’s Hole

To celebrate the 55th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK - and not to mention show those bastard American imperialists, Japanese militarists, and their South Korean running-dog lackeys the true might of the Korean people - the North is planning the Mother of All Festivals tomorrow, featuring a military parade during which the North will show off its Rodong missiles. The North may also be planning a rather spectacular fireworks display in the form of a nuclear test or a multi-stage missile test; American Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage apparently discussed the possibility with the Japanese Vice Foreign Minister during talks in Washington on September 5. However, just from going through the plethora of crappy analysis found over at Yahoo! Korea’s “Nuclear Crisis” section, the chances of the North actually wasting its most important card on a real live nuke test tomorrow seem pretty low.

Still, regardless of whether the Norks break out the nuclear fireworks or not, I’m looking quite forward to tomorrow’s festivities - as I mentioned before, I live for shit like this. Be prepared for a lot goose-stepping and a ton of vintage Soviet military hardware, topped off with plenty of perfectly synchronized “spontaneous” celebrations. I’ll try to get a hold of footage of the extravaganza tomorrow, but for those who can’t wait, you can visit Alan Miller’s excellent travelogue of his 1995 visit to North Korea - his site is complete with video footage of North Korean military parades and mass celebrations AND tons of funky Nork patriotic music. Party on, Comrades!

UPDATE: Reuters, referring to this Chosun Ilbo report, is reporting that the Norks may showcase a new missile tomorrow, one with a range of 3,000-4,000 km (enough to hit Guam). The Chosun Ilbo report, citing a source familiar with the North Korea situation (which could be me for all I know), claims that this new missile class, with a range much longer than that of the Taepodong 1 the North tested in ‘98, is completely different from anything in both its current inventory of Scuds, Rodongs, and Taepodong 1s AND the long-range Taepodong-2s still under development. The source also claims that the North is preparing to deploy the new missiles, apparently without a test launch. Hmm… should give us something to look out for tomorrow. BTW, for all your Nork missile info needs, just click on over to GlobalSecurity.org’s DPRK missiles page.