Ordinary North Koreans have been out in numbers around Pyongyang this week conducting mandatory practices for a civilian component of an upcoming military parade, NK Pro analysis of recent satellite imagery suggests, as the country prepares for celebratory events on and before a major holiday on April 15. 

The imagery also shows soldiers continuing large-scale training for the parade at a military base and workers putting the finishing touches on a new housing project for elites in the city center.

North Korea is expected to hold a military parade on April 15, the 110th birthday of late founding leader Kim Il Sung, but may also hold big events to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Kim Jong Un becoming first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on April 11 and first chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission on April 13. 

CIVILIAN TRAINING

Large groups of people conducting parade training began to appear in public squares around Pyongyang in Planet Labs imagery taken on March 20, and drills have appeared to continue through the latest imagery taken on March 29.

Locations include Kim Il Sung Square where the parade is expected to take place, the parking lots of May Day Stadium and the Arch of Triumph, and a riverside area next to the unfinished Pyongyang General Hospital.

This sort of training around the capital has in the past typically consisted of students and adults carrying large flags for a “civilian procession” and float parade or conducting pom-pom formations that spell out Kim Jong Un’s name and other slogans during the actual military parade.

Available imagery has not yet revealed slogan or specific shape formations in Kim Il Sung Square, which could reveal if a youth torch parade is also being planned for next month. These “torchlight processions” typically involve young children carrying live torches while creating intricate formations for an hour long show.

And while NK Pro has observed training outside May Day Stadium where North Korea typically holds its “mass games” event, workers have not appeared to begin preparing the stadium itself for another of these events soon. 

ELITE HOUSING PROJECT 

Kim Jong Un earlier this month visited a major new “10,000-home” construction project in southeast Pyongyang to declare it would open by April 15, but the status of another project across town for 800 elite families remained unclear.

Now, three months past its original deadline for completion, satellite imagery reveals workers may be preparing to open the “terrace homes” project on the Pothong River around the upcoming holiday as well.

Planet Labs satellite imagery reveals workers paved the main road in front of the complex between March 17 and 20, as well as roads inside the dense complex of apartments between March 27 and 29.

Kim visited the construction site three times in 2021, showing off multi-story apartments with luxurious furnishings and balconies with views of the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel. He said the homes are intended for “labor innovators and meritorious persons in all fields, scientists, educators, writers and other working people who are devotedly working for the Party and the state.”

The ruling party also carried out a major clean-up project of a section of the Pothong River in front of the new housing complex in recent months, according to state media and satellite imagery.

MILITARY TRAINING CONTINUES

At the Mirim military parade training base in southeast Pyongyang, satellite imagery shows large-scale soldier marching formation practices have continued almost daily in recent weeks.

NK Pro was first to report on the start of these practices in mid-February, and earlier this month on the arrival of additional trucks at the site. 

Signs that North Korea will feature its largest missiles and weapons in the upcoming parade also emerged with the installation of an unidentified structure inside the heavy weapon launch vehicle training area between March 11 and 15. It may be an additional garage needed to house a large number of weapons, as seen prior to the Oct. 2020 parade.

10,000 or more soldiers are expected to begin full-scale, simultaneous block formation training around one to two weeks before the parade date, according to past patterns observed at the site.

Meanwhile, the large number of buses seen on March 26 in the parking lot of the April 25 Hotel, located next door to the Mirim training base, was likely for attendees of the First Workshop for Party Propaganda Officials taking place across town at the April 25 House of Culture.

Updated on April 3 at 12:51 a.m. KST to add a high-resolution satellite image of the Mirim parade training area.

Edited by Arius Derr