North Korea held its second parade in as many months in early September, and its third parade this year alone, raising questions about the utility of hosting another expensive public event.

However, the latest celebrations in Kim Il Sung Square featured not the DPRK military but its massive paramilitary forces that support the country’s already outsized military branches. 

The Worker-Peasant Red Guards (WPRG), as this nationwide militia is called, comprise approximately 5.7 million personnel that can be drawn from local civilians come wartime. 

Furnishing arms for this fantastically large defense force is a