Every once in a while, North Korea does something that triggers a perspective shift in how defense analysts understand one of the world’s most secretive militaries, like the test of an atomic bomb or intercontinental ballistic missile.

The DPRK set the latest such shift in motion in recent weeks, though this time, it did so with a seemingly innocuous event — leader Kim Jong Un’s visit to the Academy of Defense Sciences in celebration of its 60th anniversary.

While the usual fanfare of speeches and photo ops were hardly enlightening, the same cannot be