N. Korea slams Seoul's Armed Forces Day parade

North Korea on Wednesday lambasted South Korea's large-scale Armed Forces Day parade as evidence of Seoul's hostility against it and said such provocations "will get them nowhere."

South Korea's military mobilized some 11,000 troops, 190 pieces of various equipment and 120 aircraft for the ceremony held at an airbase south of the capital city on Tuesday. The event, which was the largest organized in a decade, also included a parade by troops and military hardware through the center of Seoul.

"The puppet warmongers' action is little short of a poor farce to tighten military tie-up with their U.S. master, escalate the confrontation with compatriots and fan up the anti-north war fever," said an article carried by the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

The North has always insisted that South Korea and the United States started the 1950-53 Korean War by invading the communist country and has never acknowledged that it started the bloody conflict that devastated the entire peninsula.

The paper, which reflects the views of the country's ruling class, said the display of the 500-kilometer-range Hyunmoo 2 ballistic missile, the 1,000-km-range Hyunmoo 3 cruise missile and other advanced weapons "openly disclosed the deep-seated hostility" harbored by Seoul.

The South's conservative media added fuel by reporting how the missiles can attack the entire North Korea, it said.

"The inter-Korean relations recently deteriorated once again are attributable to the provocative action of the puppet warmongers," it said.  "But it will get them nowhere." (Yonhap News)