Kim Jong-un returns the favor. A month after being invited to the front row of the Chinese army’s military parade in Beijing on September 3, the North Korean leader invited Russian and Chinese representatives to the military parade organized this Friday in Pyongyang, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the creation of the “Workers’ Party”.
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Opponents of the Moscow-Beijing-Pyongyang axis, first and foremost the United States, Japan and South Korea, will carefully scrutinize the parade of soldiers from the Korean People’s Army. Among the troops participating in the parade, North Korea’s adversaries are expected to have their eyes on the new Hwasong 20 missile, likely to be displayed by Pyongyang. But what is it actually about?
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The Hwasong-20 is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It has a range of 15,000 km, sufficient to reach the entire “Homeland”, the American territory, from the North Korean peninsula. It was designed in 2023 and has since undergone eight ground firing tests. It succeeds the Hwasong 19, tested for the first time in October 2024 and marks the crossing of a new power threshold by Pyongyang.
At the beginning of September, the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) revealed that it had carried out a ninth and final test of an engine used to transport the ballistic missile. This vector is capable of producing a thrust of 1971 kilonewtons, a power previously unmatched by Pyongyang. For comparison, the Hwasong 19 was powered by an engine with a maximum power of 1,960 kN.
In the case of North Korean strategic nuclear power, no source allows us to assess the destructive potential of these missiles, as well as their real effectiveness. And for good reason: North Korea’s Strategic Missile Force, a branch of the People’s Army responsible for developing conventional and strategic missiles, does not release any official documents.
Strengthening North Korean arsenal
This missile race marks the period of Kim Jong-un’s reign. Under his leadership, North Korea considerably strengthened its arsenal, acquiring intermediate-range missiles (3,000 to 5,000 km) in the early 2010s, before developing its intercontinental missiles since 2017. Beyond the strategic signal, the exhibition of missiles has a provocative value.
In 2015, Pyongyang proudly displayed the new Hwasong-14, its first intercontinental missile. The deadly machine made a symbolic first flight on July 4, 2017, Independence Day, the American national holiday.
During his first term, Donald Trump met with the supreme leader three times, without obtaining an agreement on stopping North Korea’s military nuclear program. On September 22, Kim Jong-un said he kept “good memories” of the American president and conditioned a new meeting on the cessation by Washington of “his delusional obsession with denuclearization”.
This military parade comes as Pyongyang tries to place itself at the heart of the geopolitical game in East Asia. The Congress of the “Workers’ Party” is scheduled for early 2026, an opportunity for the North Korean leader to detail his country’s main orientations in terms of foreign policy.
