North Korea fetes fearsome but fragile army

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

SEOUL, Apr 25 (Reuters) North Korea celebrated with a grand parade today the 75th birthday of its ''invincible'' army, which experts say is capable of dealing a quick and devastating blow, but is hollow at the core.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reviewed the parade of military hardware, and goose-stepping soldiers through central Pyongyang, waving to the enthusiastically cheering crowds'' from a balcony, North Korea's KCNA news agency said.

''Columns of rocket units also went past the tribune of honour, demonstrating the invincible might of the KPA equipped with modern offensive and defensive means,'' KCNA said.

It was not clear if those units included the Taepodong 2 rocket, which defence analysts say can reach parts of the United States.

''Our military and people need to join forces, holding big faith in great leader Kim Jong-il,'' Kim Kyok-sik, chief of staff for the Korean Peoples Army, standing by Kim Jong-il, said in a statement broadcast on state television.

The Korean Peoples Army (KPA) dates its origin back to 1932 when it organised resistance movements against the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula, which ended after World War Two.

With nearly 1.2 million soldiers, the secretive communist state today has one of the largest standing forces on the planet. But the crippled economy has left the military short of food for its soldiers as well as lacking fuel and parts for its tanks, planes and ships.

The army would not last long in a prolonged conflict with superior forces such as the U.S. military, but it could inflict a lot of damage before falling, experts say.

''North Korea can provoke a war and has the military power to cause initial damage, but does not have the ability to carry out and win the war,'' said Baek Seung-joo, a military expert at the South's Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.

MORE REUTERS ABM RK1822

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