North Korea is stepping up preparations for an upcoming military parade, NK Pro imagery analysis shows, as vehicles have appeared to gather at a key training base in Pyongyang.

The ruling party has used such parades to boost internal resolve and show off new weapons to domestic and international audiences in the past. A likely date for the upcoming military parade is April 15, the 110th birthday of North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il Sung, which state media has said will be celebrated on a “grand” scale.

In the latest satellite imagery from Planet Labs, hundreds of likely military trucks appeared to amass in empty grass lots at the Mirim parade training base in southeast Pyongyang between Feb. 20 and 22. Hundreds more are expected to fill the lots before the parade takes place.  

These images of the Mirim military parade training compound on Feb. 20 and 22 show what appear to be groups of trucks starting to park in open grass lots next to the replica Kim Il Sung Square on site | Images: Planet Labs PBH, edited by NK Pro

For comparison, these images show what was later confirmed through higher-resolution imagery to be hundreds of military trucks parked in the same spot in late December 2020, ahead of a military parade that took place on Jan. 14, 2021 | Images: Planet Labs PBH, edited by NK Pro

Though it is difficult to identify the types of vehicles in the Feb. 22 imagery due to the image resolution, the appearance of dark rectangular areas in the grass lots resembles the confirmed gathering of troop-carrying trucks in the same area before past parades.

Historical imagery shows that organizers began to park trucks in the same place five to eight weeks before military parades held on four occasions between 2017 and 2020, but shortened this period to just three weeks before a Jan. 2021 event and less than two weeks before a Sept. 9 “paramilitary” parade.

There are no major holidays in March to suggest another rapid training period ahead of a parade in the next few weeks, but the upcoming April 15 holiday — now around seven weeks away — falls into the window of previous training periods. 

April 11, the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong Un becoming first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), is another possible but less likely date for a parade.

Meanwhile, large block formations of troops have also continued marching practice in the replica of Kim Il Sung Square at the Mirim compound in recent days, satellite imagery shows, after such practices kicked off in December and increased in size in late January. 

However, full-scale troop marching practices, which typically feature around 30 or more groups of 300 soldiers each, have yet to appear in the latest satellite imagery. These practices began around one week before three parades held since 2020, and around two to five weeks prior to three parades in 2017 and 2018, according to historical satellite imagery.

Edited by Arius Derr