South Korea has held its first military parade since 2013, with tanks, armoured autos and superior missiles rolling via the streets of Seoul in a show of army would possibly.
The parade passed off amid worsening ties with nuclear-armed North Korea.
About 4,000 troops, together with a number of hundred troopers from the USA, marched alongside a 2km (1.24 mile) route via the rain-soaked streets of central Seoul, cheered by umbrella-bearing crowds waving South Korean flags.
They had been accompanied by army bands and 170 items of weaponry, together with drones and cruise missiles.
Cho Kyu-bok, a 75-year-old resident of Goyang, northwest of Seoul, stated he got here to Gwanghwamun hours earlier than the occasion to get a front-row view of the brand new weapons.
“Weapons just like the unmanned drones present how a lot our nation has developed,” Cho instructed the Reuters information company.
Fewer troops and items of apparatus had been concerned than initially deliberate due to the poor climate and a flight show by South Korean army plane, together with US-made F-35 stealth fighters, was additionally cancelled.
The occasion comes as President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who took workplace final yr, takes a extra hawkish stance on North Korea, deepening security ties with the US and Japan, and making shows of weapons and army drills a cornerstone of his technique to counter Pyongyang’s evolving weapons programmes.
Yoon started the day by reiterating that any aggression on the a part of North Korea could be met with a swift response.