South Korea on Tuesday will stage its first navy parade in a decade, showcasing its superior arsenal within the face of plummeting ties with nuclear-armed North Korea.
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Pyongyang usually places on enormous navy parades however such occasions in Seoul are historically solely organized each 5 years to mark South Korea’s Armed Forces Day.
The final parade was in 2013. 5 years later, then-president Moon Jae-in selected to carry a celebratory ceremony as a substitute of a navy occasion, consistent with his conciliatory method to North Korea.
Tuesday’s parade in Seoul will start round 4 pm (7 am GMT) and can contain round 6,700 troops and 340 items of navy gear, together with F-35 stealth fighters, the South Korean defence ministry stated.
The KF-21, South Korea’s first domestically produced fighter jet, in addition to next-generation helicopters and drones will even be on show, it added.
Additional, round 200 South Korean and US personnel will exhibit “tactical drops in the identical means as an precise aerial infiltration”, the ministry stated.
South Korea and US foster ties
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was elected final 12 months, has pulled South Korea nearer to the US and the longstanding allies have ramped up defence cooperation – together with large-scale drills – to counter rising threats from North Korea.
Round 300 US navy personnel will participate within the parade on Tuesday.
Throughout a separate ceremony to mark the seventy fifth Armed Forces Day at an air base south of Seoul on Tuesday, Yoon hailed the growth of US-South Korea defence ties.
“If North Korea makes use of nuclear weapons, its regime can be dropped at an finish by an amazing response from the ROK-US alliance,” he stated, repeating a warning the companions have issued previously.
‘Visually provocative gesture’
Regardless of worldwide sanctions, North Korea has carried out a sequence of weapons exams this 12 months, together with the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Pyongyang has held three navy parades this 12 months alone, exhibiting off a variety of kit together with its largest Hwasong-17 ICBMs.
The parade in Seoul “is a not-so-subtle and visually provocative gesture on the a part of the South Korean authorities of telling (North Korean chief) Kim Jong Un that Seoul won’t be backing down or in search of methods to reconcile”, LMI Consulting’s Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst, advised AFP.
South Korea is a significant weapons exporter however a longstanding home coverage prohibits it from promoting arms to international locations in lively battle – reminiscent of Ukraine.
South Korea has thus resisted calls to produce weapons on to Kyiv, regardless of condemning the Russian invasion.
Nevertheless, any deal that sees North Korea promote arms to Russia to be used within the battle might drive South Korea to overview its place on Ukraine, consultants say.
Final 12 months, South Korea secured defence export offers price $17.3 billion, together with a $12.7 billion settlement with Poland – a NATO member and key Ukraine ally – for K9 Howitzers, K2 battle tanks and extra.
(AFP)