North Koreans rebuke US ‘imperialists’ in mass rallies

Around 120,000 people condemned Washington’s aggression as the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War was marked.

North Korean citizens vowed a “war of revenge” and condemned US “imperialism” as around 120,000 took part in mass rallies in Pyongyang on Sunday to mark the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War, local media reported on Monday.

Large crowds of predominantly “working people and youth and students” assembled at the capital’s May Day Stadium and various other locations in the city, state media outlet KCNA said. Those gathered “manifest[ed] their will to [take] revenge on the US imperialists who proved an aggressive war to obliterate the DPRK in its cradle,” the report added.

Photos from inside the 114,000-capacity stadium showed people holding signs which read “The whole US mainland is within our shooting range,” and “The imperialist US is the destroyer of peace,” Reuters noted on Monday.

A host of North Korean dignitaries attended the rallies, with KCNA news agency quoting an unnamed speaker as saying that the United States is “hell-bent on military confrontation and nuclear war exercises,” which they said “reveals their aggressive nature will never change for all ages.”

The rallies marked the 73rd anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War on June 25, 1950 when North Korea invaded its southern neighbor in a bid to unite the Korean Peninsula. An estimated two million people died in the ensuing three-year war, which saw US-led United Nations troops ally with Seoul.

North and South Korea technically remain at war since the conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

The rallies in Pyongyang follow several months of increased weapons testing, and a failed attempt last month to launch its first military spy satellite. Officials say they intend a second launch attempt at a future date.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pledge to modernize the country’s military saw Pyongyang successfully test its first-ever solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in April. Kim has stated that the advancement of North Korea’s military arsenal is necessary in the face of US aggression, and joint military drills conducted by Washington and Seoul.

Separately, Pyongyang’s foreign ministry accused the United States on Monday of “making desperate attempts to ignite a nuclear war” and said Washington had deployed various strategic assets to further its goals in the region.